LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

GTF^T  OK 

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Accession  No.  y^od '<£/'-   Class  No. 


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10...A4L 


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THE 


PRIMITIVE  MIND-CURE. 


THE  NATURE  AND  POWER  OF  FAITH; 


ELEMENTARY  LESSONS  IN  CHEISTIAN  PHILOSOPHY 
AND  TRANSCENDENTAL  MEDICINE. 


W.  F.  EVANS, 

AuTHOB  OF  "Celestial  Dawk,"  "Mental  Cure,"  "Mental  Medicine, 
"  Soul  and  Body,"  AiMt_''DinmiJiAW  of  Cuke." 


To  you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdo 
of  the  heavens."     (Mat.  xiii :  11.) 


FIFTH    EDITION. 


BOSTON : 

H.  H.  CARTER  &  KARRICK,  PUBLISHERS, 
3  Beacon  Street. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1884,  by 

W.  F.  EVANS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  "Washington. 


J.  S.  CusHiNG  &  Co.,  Printers,  115  High  Street,  Boston. 


PEEFAOE. 


This  volume  is  designed  to  contribute  something  toward 
supplying  the  demand  in  the  public  for  further  light  on  the 
subject  upon  which  it  ti-eats,  —  the  cure  of  disease  in  our- 
selves and  others  b}'  mental  and  spiritual  agencies.  The 
first  work  of  the  author  having  a  relation  to  the  subject, 
was  published  over  twenty-two  years  ago.  It  was  fol- 
lowed, at  intervals  of  different  length,  by  four  other  vol- 
umes, which  have  had  an  extensive  circulation  in  every 
part  of  the  country,  and  to  some  extent  in  Europe.  It  is 
not  an  incredible  supposition  that  they  have  had  an  influ- 
ence, more  or  less,  towards  generating  in  the  public  mind 
the  widely-spread  and  growing  belief  of  the  mental  origin 
of  disease,  and  of  the  relation  of  the  mind  to  its  cure. 
The  work  is  intended  to  take  the  reader  up  where  the  last 
volume  of  the  author,  "The  Divine  Law  of  Cure,"  leaves 
him,  and  conduct  him  still  further  along  the  same  path  of 
inquiry.  It  does  not  claim  to  have  exhausted  the  subject, 
or  to  have  said  all  that  might  be  said ;  for  the  subject  is 
one  too  vast  to  be  crowded  into  so  limited  a  compass, 
which  would  be  like  condensing  the  ocean  into  the  dimen- 
sions of  a  lake.  But  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  enough  has 
been  said  to  vindicate  the  propriety  of  the  title,  —  that  of 


^*'  Elementary  Lessons  in  Christian  Philosophy  and  Transcen- 
dental Medicine."  It  was  our  aim  to  furnish  the  teach- 
ers and  pupils  of  the  spiritual  philosophy  of  healing,  with 
a  text-book  which  should  elevate  the  subject  into  the 
dignity  of  a  science.  The  themes  discussed  are  occasion- 
ally of  an  abstruse  nature,  but  have  been  expressed  in 
the  clearest  language  at  our  command.  It  is  not  intended 
to  wholly  supplant  the  living  teacher,  but  rather  to  aid 
his  work  by  suggesting  many  things  it  does  not  say.  The 
work  is  written  also  in  the  interest  of  self-healing,  and 
contains  the  essential  features  of  the  instruction  which  the 
author  has  given  to  numerous  persons  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  There  is  a  large  number  of  people  in  the 
world  whose  life  has  been  a  perpetual  struggle  with  dis- 
ease, and  who  have  been  able  to  discover  no  pathway  of 
light  that  unerringly  conducts  them  out  of  their  troubles. 
The  various  systems  of  materialistic  medication  have  been 
successively  tried,  and  all  have  failed.  To  them  the  vol- 
ume is  sincerely  commended  and  respectfully  dedicated, 
with  the  hope  that  they  may  find  in  it  somewhere  the  sav- 
ing power  of  the  right  word  at  the  right  time.  There  is 
in  the  minds  of  men,  at  the  present  day,  an  inward  thirst, 
an  unsatisfied  craving  for  spiritual  light.  We  wish  it  was 
in  our  power  to  fully  meet  this  heart-felt  want.  But  we 
can  only  promise,  in  the  following  pages,  to  bring  to  you, 
"  in  the  name  of  a  disciple,"  a  single  cup  of  water,  while 
we  point  you  to  the  inexhaustible  fountain  whence  all 
living,  saving  truth  flows,  — the  universal  Christ,  the  bound- 
less, everywhere-present  realm  of  pure  spirit.  Standing 
by  this  fountain   and  well  of  living  water,  on  which  God 


has  never  placed  a  seal,  nor  stationed  around  it  an  armed 
guard,  we  would  say,  in  the  language  of  the  sublimest  of 
the  old  prophets,  "  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye 
to  the  waters,  and  he  that  hath  no  money;  come  ye,  buy 
and  eat ;  yea,  come,  buy  wine  and  milk,  without  money 
and  without  price."     (Isa.  lv:l.) 

For,  surely,  spiritual  truth  ought  not  to  be  classed 
among  the  luxuries  which  a  poor  man  cannot  afford  to 
buy,  but  rather  among  the  commonest  necessaries  of  life, 
as  air  and  water,  which  the  Supreme  Goodness  has  scat- 
tered, with  amazing  and  beneficent  profusion,  all  over 
the  world,  and  placed  within  the  reach  of  all.  Of  the 
true  water  of  life,  the  old  symbol  of  spiritual  truth,  God 
has  opened  a  fountain  in  the  inmost  region  of  our  own 
being,  and  which  springs  up  into  everlasting  life,  if  we 
only  knew  it.  To  convince  the  reader  of  this  will  be  one 
of  the  aims  of  the  present  volume.  If  we  succeed  in 
doing  this,  the  book  itself  will  no  longer  be  needed.  For 
when  we  find  the  Christ  within,  "in  whom  are  hid  all 
the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge,"  we  have  access 
to  more  of  life  and  light  than  all  the  libraries  of  the  world 
can  give  us.  When  the  reader  shall  have  made  tlie 
grandest  discovery  ever  made  in  our  earthly  existence,  — 
the  finding  of  his  true  self,  and  has  identified  it  with  the 
Christ,  of  whom  it  is  but  a  personal  limitation, — we  will 
gladly  step  down  from  the  platform  of  the  teacher,  and 
take  our  place  by  your  side  as  a  fellow-disciple  or  pupil. 
We  will  no  longer  open  our  mouth  to  speak,  but  open 
the  inner  ear  to  receive  the  deep  and  calm  revealing.  The 
education  of  the  future  will  be  a  sj'stem  more  in  harmony 


with  the  true  meaning  of  the  word,  —  an  educing  or  guid- 
ing out  of  what  is  already  in  us  in  a  state  of  latency. 
Spiritual  and  saving  truth  is  not  a  foreign  exotic  which 
has  to  be  imported  from  abroad,  but  is  a  divine  plant, 
with  both  flower  and  fruit,  which  exists  as  in  its  native 
habitat,  in  the  inmost  soul  of  every  man.  The  signs  of 
the  times  point  unerringly  to  the  coming  of  a  fuller 
recognition  of  this  ancient  truth,  and  it  is  the  faint  light 
in  the  east,  indicating  the  approach  of  a  better  day  for 
humanity.  There  are,  within  the  enclosure  of  our  inner 
being,  certain  dormant,  because  unused,  spiritual  energies 
and  potencies  that  can  save  the  soul  and  heal  the  body  of 
its  maladies.  To  guide  these  out  into  conscious  and  intel- 
ligent action,  is  the  end  we  shall  keep  steadily  in  view 
in  these  elementary  lessons  in  transcendental  philosophy. 
We  have  endeavored  to  restore  the  ancient  doctrine  of 
faith  to  its  primitive  meaning,  as  a  saving,  healing  power. 
How  far  we  have  succeeded,  we  must  leave  the  reader  to 
judge. 

3  Beacon  Stbest,  Boston,  Dec.  25, 18M. 


COE"TEI^fTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

What  are  Ideas,  and  What  is  Idealism?      .....        1 


CHAPTER   n. 

The  Application  of  the  Idealistic   Philosophy  to  the    Cure    of 

Mental  and  Bodily  Maladies, 10 


CHAPTER   ni. 

The  Triune  Constitution  of  man  and  the  Discovery  of  the  True 

Self, 18 


CHAPTER   IV. 
The  Saving  Power  of  the  Spirit  of  Man, 29 

CHAPTER  V. 
Happiness  and  Health,  and  Where  they  are  to  be  found,  .      39 

CHAPTER   VI. 

The  Real  and  the  Apparent  in  Thought,  or  the  Impossible  and 

Contradictory  to  Sense  is  True  to  the  Spirit,       ...      47 


^y 


viii 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PAGE 

r        Disease  Exists  only  in  the  Mind  on  the  Plane  of  Sense,  which  is 

the  Region  of  Deceptive  Appearances,  ....      55 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

The  Deepest  Reality  of  Disease  is  a  Morbid  Idea  and  Belief,  .      63 


CHAPTER   IX. 
The  Science  of  Oblivescence,  or  the  Art  of  Forgetting  a  Malady,      71 

CHAPTER   X. 
The  Incipient  Idea  of  Recovery  and  Whence  Does  it  Come"?     .      79 

CHAPTER  XI. 
What  is  it  to  be  Spiritual,  and,  Hovp  may  we  Become  sol        .      90 

CHAPTER   XII. 
Spiritual  Truth  the  Best  Remedy  for  Disease,   ....    100 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

On  the  Triune  Nature  of  Man,  and  the  Freeing  the  Soul  from 

the  Body, 109 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

Executing  Judgment  upon  Ourselves,  or  in  Thought  Separating 

Disease  from  the  Real  Self, 117 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER   XV. 

PAGE 

The    Creative   Power  of    the   Ideal,  or  the    Externalization  of 

Thought, 123 

CHAPTER   XVI. 
The  Nature  and  Right  Use  of  the  Will, 129 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

The  Universal  Life-Principle,  and  its  Occult  Properties  and  Uses,     136 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

The  Universal  Ether  of  Science,  and  the  JEiher  of  the  Hermetic 

Philosophy, 142 

CHAPTER   XIX. 
The  Mother-Principle  of  Things,  and  its  Use  in  Self-Healing,  .    148 

CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Kabalistic  and  Messianic  Method  of  Healing,  and  the  One 

Practised  by  Jesus  the  Christ, 157 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

The  Summit   of   Christian  Knowledge,  or   the   Mystery  of  the 

Christ,  and  its  Saving  Influence, 165 

CHAPTER   XXII. 
The  Relation  of  Jesus  to  the  Christ  and  to  Man,      .        .        .    175 


y 


CHAPTER  XXni. 

PAGE 

The  Kabalistic  Justice  and  Paul's  Righteousness  of  Faith.  Ap- 
pendix. The  Prayer  of  Faith  that  Saves  the  Sick,  or  the 
Healing  Power  of  Spiritual  Truth, 183 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

Psychological  Telegraphy,  or  the  Transference  of  Thought  and 

Idea  from  one  Mind  to  Another, 199 


CHAPTER  XXV. 
Resurrection  from  the  Body,  or  the  Liberty  of  the  Sons  of  God,    209 


THE  PEIMITIVE  MIND-CUEE. 

CHAPTER  I. 

WHAT   ARE    IDEAS?    AND    WHAT    IS    IDEALISM? 

As  idealism  in  opposition  to  materialism  constitutes  the 
philosophic  basis  on  which  the  psychological  or  phrenopathic 
83'stem  of  cure  rests,  it  is  necessary  at  the  outset  of  our  in- 
quiries to  form  a  clear  conception  of  what  is  meant  by  that 
term.  Its  principles  are  unanswerably  set  forth  in  the  work 
of  Bishop  Berkeley,  entitled  Tlie  Principles  of  Human  Knoivl- 
edge,  published  in  the  year  1710.  The  doctrines  taught  by 
Berkeley  were  subsequently  presented  under  modifications 
by  a  succession  of  German  philosophers,  among  whom  we 
prominently  name  Fichte,  Schelling,  Hegel,  and  Schopen- 
hauer. 

According  to  Lossius,  "  Idealism  is  the  assertion  that 
matter  (and  consequently  the  human  body)  is  only  a  sensu- 
ous seeming,  and  that  spiritual  essences  are  the  only  real 
things  in  the  world."  This  doctrine  was  taught  by  Plato, 
who  derived  it  from  Pythagoras  and  the  occult  pliilosophy  of 
Egypt,  Chaldea,  and  India.  It  is  as  old  as  the  human  race. 
From  the  remotest  antiquity,  it  was  taught  in  the  Vedas  and 
in  all  the  Oriental  philosophies.  Says  Krug :  "Idealism  is 
that  system  of  philosophy  which  considers  the  existent  or 
actual  as  a  mere  ideal."  The  definition  of  Brockhaus  is 
to  the  same  effect:  "Idealism,  in  antithesis  to  realism,  is 
that  philosophical  system  which  maintains  not  only  that  the 
spiritual  or  ideal  is  the  original,  but  that  it  is  the  sole  ac 


2  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

tuality  ;  so  tlmt  we  can  concede  to  the  objects  of  the  senses 
no  more  than  the  character  of  a  phenomenal  (or  apparent) 
world,  educed  by  ideal  activities."  {Real  Encydopcedie, 
Eleventh  Ed.,  1866.)  In  another  place,  he  defines  idealism 
to  be  "  that  philosophical  view  which  regards  what  is  thought 
as  alone  the  actually  existent."  This  is  the  best  definition, 
and  accords  perfectl}'  with  the  teaching  of  the  true  idealists 
of  all  ages  and  countries.  "  Thought,"  says  the  Kabala, 
"  is  the  source  of  all  that  is."  It  is  the  first  Sephira  or 
emanation  from  God.  It  is  the  first  begotten,  the  first-born 
from  the  "  Unknown."  It  is  the  I  Am,  the  highest  manifes- 
tation of  God  in  man,  and  the  most  real  thing  in  the  uni- 
verse,—  that  from  which  everything  springs,  and  to  which 
in  its  last  analysis  it  can  be  reduced. 

But  it  is  necessary  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  ideas, 
and  their  relation  to  external  things,  and  all  the  objects  of 
the  sense-world.  Says  Thomas  Taylor,  in  the  introduction 
to  the  Parmenides  of  Plato :  "To  the  question,  what  kind 
of  things,  or  beings,  ideas  are,  we  may  answer  with  Zenoc- 
rates,  according  to  the  relation  of  Proclus,  that  they  are  the 
exemplary  causes  of  things  which  perpetually  subsist  according 
to  nature.  They  are  exemplars  (or  the  living  patterns  or 
models  of  things)  indeed,  because  the  final  cause,  or  the  good 
(the  supreme  God) ,  is  superior  to  them,  and  that  which  is 
properly  the  eflScient  cause,  or  the  demiurgic  intellect,  is  of 
an  inferior  ordiuation.  But  they  are  the  exemplars  of  things 
according  to  nature,  because  there  are  no  ideas  of  things  un- 
natural or  artificial ;  and  of  such  natural  things  as  are  per- 
petual, because  there  are  no  ideas  of  mutable  particulars." 
(Taylor's  Translation  of  Plato,  p.  254.)  This  is  a  compre- 
hensive statement  of  the  nature  of  the  Platonic  ideas.  Ac- 
cording to  this  view,  the  ideal  is  the  caused,  as  the  ideal 
picture  in  the  mind  of  the  artist  is  the  necessary  cause  of  the 
picture  on  the  canvas.  The  latter,  though  only  a  resem- 
blance, could  not  exist  without  the  former,  because  there  can 


TUE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  3 

be  no  resemblance  that  is  not  the  resembLance  of  something ; 
no  appearance  that  is  not  the  appearance  of  something.  The 
architect  constructs  his  house  in  imitation  of  a  preexisting 
model  or  idea,  and,  without  that  idea,  it  might  be  anything 
else,  as  well  as  a  house.  So  the  tabernacle  of  Moses  was 
to  be  built  after  the  pattern  shown  to  him  in  the  Mount.  So 
of  every  object  of  nature,  and  of  all  that  endless  variety  of 
thhigs,  which  belongs  to  the  world  of  sense,  they  owe  their 
existence  to  antecedent  ideas,  which  they  represent  on  a  lower 
plane  of  being.  As  ideas  are  the  causes  of  the  existence  of 
all  material  entities,  so  they  sustain  a  causal  relation  to  the 
human  body,  and  all  its  states  of  health  and  disease.  If  I 
would  be  perfectly  well  in  body,  I  must  first  form  the  true 
idea  of  myself,  such  as  I  really  am  in  spirit  (or  as  Paul 
would  say,  in  Christ) .  For  Plato  teaches  that  the  highest 
soul  of  man,  the  pneuma  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Buddhi 
of  the  Sanscrit,  is  the  idea  or  living  image  of  God.  If  I 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  this, — my  real  and  immortal  self, 
—  it  will  act  as  a  cause,  and  adjust  the  lower  animal  soul, 
and  the  body  in  harmony  with  it.  And  "  our  earthly  house 
of  this  tabernacle"  will  be  constructed  after  the  pattern 
shown  to  us  in  the  Mount. 

All  creation  is  first  in  idea,  and  is  essentially  a  generating 
or  begetting.  Ideas  are  conceptions ;  that  is,  they  are  the 
union  of  pure  intellect,  which  was  viewed  in  the  Hermetic 
philosophy  as  masculine,  with  that  spiritual  and  feminine 
principle,  which  may  be  designated  by  the  general  term, 
feeling.  This  union  is  life  whenever  and  wherever  it  is 
effected.  It  is  represented  symbolically  by  the  cross,  and  is 
the  Kabalistic  balance,  and  they  express  one  of  the  most 
comprehensive  and  far-reaching  truths  in  the  whole  realm  of 
thought.  "  There  is  in  everything,"  says  Swedenborg,  "  the 
marriage  of  truth  and  good,"  or  the  conjunction  of  intellect 
and  feeling.  This  extends  through  the  universe.  It  is  said 
in  the  Sohar,  the  Book  of  Splendor,  or  the  teaching  of  the 


4  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

shining  ones  (Dan.  xii:3),  "When  the  Most  Holy  Elder, 
(or  the  Ancient  of  days) ,  hidden  in  all  occultations,  willed 
to  create,  he  made  all  things  in  the  form  of  husband  and  ivife. 
(Idra  Suta  [or  Smaller  Assembly'],  sec.  218.)  "  All  things 
appear,  therefore,  in  the  form  of  husband  and  wife;  were  it 
otherwise,  nothing  whatever  could  subsist."  {Idra  Suta,  sec. 
223.)  It  is  an  immutable  and  eternal  truth,  and  one  that  is 
fundamental  and  universal,  that  nothing  exists  or  can  exist, 
except  by  the  union  of  intellectual  thought  with  its  corres- 
ponding feeling,  or  their  correlatives.  And  ideas  are  the 
only  "truly  existing  things,"  as  they  are  denominated  by 
Plato.  They  are  the  generation  or  creation  of  the  masculine 
Intelligence  (Nous),  in  union  with  the  feminine  Wisdom 
(Sophia) ,  and  they  are  living,  enduring,  and  divine  realities. 
They  result  from  the  union  of  the  intellect  and  feeling  on  the 
higher  plane  of  being,  and  descending  to  the  lower  animal 
soul  plane,  they  are  perceived  as  what  are  called  external 
objects. 

The  union  of  the  intellect  and  feeling,  in  order  to  the  ex- 
istence of  a  living  entity,  is  a  truth  with  which  the  ancient 
wisdom-religion  was  familiar,  but  has  long  since  been  forgot- 
ten. When  I  think  of  a  triangle,  or  a  circle,  the  thought 
conjoins  itself  with  the  universal  principle  of  feeling,  the 
mother  principle,  and  an  idea  is  formed  or  perceived  in  the 
mind.     This  is  a  living  and  immortal  thing. 

Thought  and  feeling  are  correlative  opposites,  like  the  two 
poles  of  a  magnet.  Each  implies  the  other,  and  they  mu- 
tually balance  each  other,  and  there  is  an  affinitive  attration 
between  the«n,  and  a  spontaneous  tendency  to  a  conjunction 
and  a  state  of  equi-libration.  When  I  think  that  I  am  well 
(which  is  true  of  my  real  being) ,  or  form  an  intellectual  con- 
ception of  any  mental  or  bodily  condition,  the  thought  will 
seek  to  unite  itself  with  the  principle  of  feeling  on  the  inter- 
mediate plane  of  my  mental  being,  and  then  it  becomes /aiY^, 
and  a  living  inward  reality,  and  the  substance  or  subsistence 


TUE    PKIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  0 

of  things  hoped  for.  Aud  it  will  lend  to  translate  itself  into 
a  corporeal  expression. 

We  are  to  bear  in  mind,  that  as  there  is  a  world  of  phe- 
nomena or  of  material  things  which  are  only  appearances,  so 
there  is  a  world  of  ideas  which  sustains  a  constant  creative 
relation  to  the  world  of  sense,  and  without  which  the  latter 
could  not  exist  any  more  than  there  could  be  a  shadow  with- 
out a  substance.  This  realm  of  ideas  is  the  subjective  and 
real  world.  It  is  the  "intelligible  world"  of  Plato,  and 
"  the  kingdom  of  the  heavens"  of  which  Jesus  speaks. 
Wherever  there  is  a  material  thing,  there  is  back  of  it,  as  its 
soul  and  life  and  cause,  an  idea.  All  things  in  the  natural 
world  are  but  representations  of  things  in  the  realm  of  ideas. 
This  is  the  old  Hermetic  doctrine  of  correspondence  which 
has  been  reproduced  by  Swedenborg.  Saj's  the  Jewish 
Kabala,  "  The  lower  world  is  made  after  the  pattern  of  the 
upper  (or  inner)  woi'ld ;  everything  which  exists  in  the 
upper  world  is  to  be  found  as  it  were  in  a  copy  upon  earth ; 
still  the  whole  is  one."  (Sohar,  II.,  20,  a.)  This  is  a 
fundamental  principle  in  our  transcendental  philosophy,  and 
must  be  fully  apprehended  before  we  can  go  any  farther. 
It  is  the  key  note  of  our  theosophical  system.  Just  as  the 
soul  of  man,  rather  than  the  body,  is  the  real  man,  so  the 
world  of  ideas  is  the  really  existing  world.  The  external 
Cosmos  is  but  a  resemblance,  a  representation,  an  appear- 
ance of  the  higher  world  to  the  sensuous  mind.  The  world 
of  ideas  is  that  which  was  called  in  the  ancient  philosophy 
the  macrocosm,  or  greater  world ;  and  the  material  world, 
including  the  human  body,  which  belongs  to  it  and  is  an 
image  of  it,  was  denominated  the  microcosm,  or  lesser 
world. 

Owing  to  the  importance  of  the  subject  in  its  relation  to 
our  transcendental  science  of  medicine,  or  science  of  mental- 
cure,  and  the  necessity  of  starting  right,  on  the  principle  of 
the  maxim  of  Pythagoras,  that  "a  good  beginning  is  half 


6  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND -CURE. 

way  to  the  end,"  we  pursue  our  inquirj^  still  further  into  the 
nature  of  ideas. 

Ideas  are  the  only  objects  of  vision.  In  this  both  Berkeley 
and  Locke,  and  even  Condillac  agree.  But  what  is  the  idea 
of  a  thing  which  is  the  object  of  vision  ?  It  is  the  spiritual 
^orm  and  reality,  of  which  the  so-called  external  object  is 
the  correspondent  or  appearance.  Says  a  distinguished 
writer,  "  Let  us  suppose  a  man  to  look  for  the  first  time 
upon  some  work  of  art,  as,  for  example,  upon  a  clock,  and 
having  sufficiently  viewed  it,  at  length  to  depart.  Would  he 
not  retain,  when  absent,  an  idea  of  what  he  had  seen?  And 
what  is  it  to  retain  such  an  idea  ?  It  is  to  have  a  form  internal 
correspondent  to  the  external."  {Hermes,  by  James  Harris, 
p.  375.)  But  this  internal  form  is  all  that  the  man  ever 
saw,  and  is  all  that  we  ever  see  in  any  case.  The  word 
form  comes  from  a  Greek  word  (opa/Aa),  meaning  that  which 
is  seen.  The  same  is  true  of  the  term  idea.  In  vision,  if 
there  is  no  idea  in  the  mind,  we  are  blind  to  the  object  how- 
ever perfect  may  be  our  organs  of  sight.  If  there  be  an 
idea  of  a  thing  in  our  mind,  there  is  a  vision  of  it  propor- 
tioned in  intensity  to  the  vividness  of  the  idea.  If  the 
internal  form  reaches  a  certain  degree  of  clearness,  it  be- 
comes what  we  call  a  sensation.  The  perception  of  the 
form,  idea,  type,  pattern,  exemplar,  species  (or  whatever 
we  are  pleased  to  call  it),  of  a  thing,  is  necessary  to  the 
vision  of  it.  It  is  the  essential  thing  in  every  act  of  vision. 
And  the  external  eye  is  not  absolutely  necessary  to  it.  We  see 
things  which  have  all  the  marks  of  reality  in  dreams,  and 
in  states  of  mental  abstraction.  This  mental  form,  image, 
or  idea  expresses  not  merely  the  material  shape,  but  the 
spiritual  nature,  essence,  and  reality  of  a  thing.  It  is  this, 
and  this  only,  that  the  mind  sees,  and  of  which  the  soul  is 
cognizant  in  every  act  or  state  of  visual  perception.  It  is 
not  a  mere  symbol,  a  picture,  a  mental  copy,  a  representa- 
tion of  the  thing,  but  the  ding  an  sich,  as  Kant  would  say, 


TOE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  7 

the  thing  itself  iu  its  inmost  reality,  the  really  existing 
thing,  to  use  a  Platonic  expression,  of  which  the  so-called 
material  exhibition  is  only  its  manifestation  on  a  lower  and 
more  imperfect  plane  of  thought.  The  idea  is  the  living 
soul  of  the  thing ;  the  material  phenomenon  is  the  imper- 
fect copy.  Ideas  are  not  only  the  only  objects  of  vision, 
but  as  they  are  the  essential  reality  of  things,  they  are  the 
only  objects  of  knowledge  or  true  science,  as  was  long  ago 
taught  by  Plato. 

We  remark  still  further,  that  ideas  are  not  mere  abstract 
thoughts,  but  living  and  immortal  entities ;  material  things 
are  their  phenomena  or  appearances,  —  the  shadow  and  not 
the  substance.  This  is  directly  the  opposite  of  the  popular 
conception  and  belief.  Ideas  are  the  living  kernel  of  things  ; 
the  material  organization  is  the  rough  shell.  "When  we  think 
of  anj'thing,  as  of  Bunker  Hill  monument,  the  thought  takes 
form  in  an  idea.  This  is  the  thing  itself,  and  more  real 
than  the  granite  rock.  It  is  the  only  visible  entity.  Ideas 
may  be  defined  to  be  the  living  and  fixed  forms  assumed  by 
thought.  All  things  which  exist  have  had  a  previous  exist- 
ence iu  the  unseen  and  real  world  of  light,  the  world  of  ideas, 
and  after  their  dissolution  they  return  to  that  world.  When 
you  burn  a  rose,  as  the  ancient  Magi,  or  Wise  Men,  affirmed, 
it  is  not  destroyed  or  annihilated,  but  has  only  passed  from 
the  world  of  sense  to  the  unseen  and  real  world  whence  it 
came.  This  doctrine  of  preexistence  applies  to  minerals, 
plants,  animals,  and  men.  They  have  existed  as  ideas 
before  they  had  a  material  manifestation.  This  is  the  doc- 
trine of  Plato,  and  the  teaching  of  all  the  philosophies  of  the 
East.  It  is  expressed  in  unmistakable  language  in  the  first 
chapters  of  Genesis.  "These  are  the  generations  of  the 
heavens  and  of  the  earth  when  they  were  created,  in  the  day 
when  Jehovah  God  made  the  earth  and  the  heavens,  and 
every  plant  of  the  field  before  it  was  in  the  earth,  and  every 
herb   of    the  field  before  it  grew."     (Gen.  ii  :  4,  5.)     All 


a  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

things  were  created  ia  idea  and  in  reality  before  they  were 
in  the  earth.  Their  generation,  or  incarnation,  or  descent 
into  matter  is  to  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  a  degradation,  but 
one  that  has  its  reward,  for  here  they  touch  the  bottom  in 
the  descending  line  of  evolution,  and  begin  to  rebound  on 
the  home  stretch,  or  upward  side  of  the  cycle,  the  ascending 
and  shining  way  to  the  blest  abodes.  Jesus  had  a  glory 
with  the  Father  before  the  world  was  (to  him),  that  is, 
before  his  descent  into  material  conditions.  So  perhaps 
had  we,  and  all  other  men,  which  is  one  of  the  oldest 
doctrines  of  philosophy,  and  when  properly  understood,  one 
of  the  most  rational.  Whatever  is  true  of  Jesus  in  that 
respect,  is  true  of  man. 

Ideas  are  but  poorly  expressed  in  the  deceptive  and  illu- 
sory world  of  sense.  The  objects  of  nature  are  not  truly 
existing  things,  but  are  only  in  a  state  of  becoming,  that  is, 
they  exhibit  an  effort  to  realize  the  ideal  plan  of  their  being. 
In  iUustration  of  this,  take  the  geometrical  figures,  as  a  line, 
a  triangle,  a  circle.  There  is  not  a  perfect  circle  in  the 
whole  material  universe.  There  can  be  only  a  resemblance 
of  one.  But  there  is  a  circle,  real,  perfect,  and  eternal  in 
the  world  of  ideas,  which  lies  above  and  within  this  world. 
So  there  is  in  every  one  of  us  an  ideal  and  immortal  man. 
This  is  not  the  dream  of  a  disordered  fancy,  but  a  divine 
reality.  There  is  in  us  an  instinctive  striving  to  climb  up  to 
its  full  realization.  To  find  this  ideal  man  as  a  fact  of  con- 
sciousness, and  recognize  it  as  the  living  image  of  God  in 
us  and  as  our  real  self,  is  the  aim  we  have  in  view.  To 
release  this  inward  and  real  self  from  the  bondage  of  matter, 
and  free  it  from  all  material  conditions  and  restraints,  is  the 
goal  toward  which  the  path  on  which  we  now  enter  conducts 
our  willing  feet.  Then  we  are  glorified  with  the  glory  which 
we  had  before  the  world  had  an  existence  in  us  and  for  us. 

This  is  not  a  new  doctrine,  but  belongs  to  the  Platonic 
philosophy,  and  is  well  stated  by  Plotinus.     "May  we  not 


THE   PRIMITIVE   BUND-CURE.  9 

say  that  prior  to  this  subsistence  in  a  state  of  becoming,  we 
had  a  subsistence  as  men  in  true  being,  tliough  different  men 
from  what  we  now  are,  and  possessing  a  deiform  nature? 
We  were  likewise  pure  souls  and  intellects  conjoined  with 
universal  essence,  being  parts  of  the  intelligible  (world)  ; 
not  disjoined  or  separated  from  it,  but  pertaining  to  the 
whole  of  it.  For  neither  are  we  now  cut  off  from  it.  For 
even  now  the  man  that  is  here  wishing  to  be  another  man, 
accedes  (or  approaches  in  thought)  to  the  man  that  is  there, 
and  which,  finding  us  (for  we  are  not  external  to  the  uni- 
verse), surrounds  us  with  himself,  and  conjoins  himself  to 
that  man  which  each  of  us  then  was.  Just  as  if  one  voice 
and  one  discourse  existing,  some  one  from  a  different  place 
applying  his  ears  should  hear  and  receive  what  was  said,  and 
should  become  in  energy  a  certain  hearing,  in  consequence 
of  having  that  which  energizes  present  with  itself.  After 
the  same  manner  we  become  both  the  mab  which  is  in  the 
intelligible  (or  ideal  world)  and  the  man  which  is  here." 
{Translations  from  the  Greek  of  some  Treatises  of  Plotinus, 
by  Thomas  Taylor,  p.  41.) 

This  is  only  the  soul  or  psychical  man,  uniting  itself  to  the 
inward  divine  jyneuma  or  spirit.  The  two  extreme  links  of 
the  chain  of  our  being  are  brought  together  in  a  circle,  and 
man  in  the  discrete  degrees  of  his  existence  is  made  a  com- 
pleted unity.  The  ideal  and  immortal  man,  which  is  latent 
in  most,  becomes  the  actual  and  conscious  man.  This  is 
salvation  in  the  Pauline  and  true  Christian  sense,  but  is  a 
conception  which  belongs  to  a  spiritual  philosophy  that  had 
an  existence  in  ages  long  anterior  to  the  advent  of  Chris- 
tianity. 


10  THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUBE. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    APPLICATION    OF     THE     IDEALISTIC     PHILOSOPHY    TO    THE 
CURE    OF    MENTAL    AND    BODILY   MALADIES. 

The  pliilosophy  of  idealism  as  presented  in  the  preceding 
lesson  is  to  be  applied  to  the  cure  of  disease,  as  it  was  by 
Jesus  the  Chi-ist.  All  disease,  so  far  as  it  has  a  material  or 
bodily  expression,  must  have  had  a  preexistence  in  us  as  a 
fixed  mode  of  thought,  that  is,  as  an  idea.  To  expunge 
from  the  mind  and  obliterate  from  our  soul-life  the  idea  of  it, 
is  to  remove  the  cause  of  it,  and  hence  to  cure  the  malady. 
How  best  to  accomplish  this  is  the  problem  to  be  solved  by 
our  transcendental  medical  science  and  practical  metaphysics. 
To  its  solution  we  will  now  devote  our  best  energies. 

It  is  our  aim  to  reproduce  the  system  of  cure  practiced  by 
Jesus,  and  adapt  it  to  modern  modes  of  thought  and  expres- 
sion. Now  Jesus  was  the  prince  of  idealists,  as  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen  has  said,  and  his  religion  is  supreme  idealism. 
(Oriental  Christ,  by  P.  C.  Mozoomdar,  p.  34.)  Without  a 
knowledge  of  the  philosophy  of  idealism  it  is  impossible  to 
corapreliend  the  profound  truths  of  Christianity  or  any  of  the 
Oriental  religions.  With  Jesus,  as  with  Gautama  the 
Buddha,  ideal  things,  existing  in  a  sphere  of  being  interior 
to  the  world  of  sense,  were  the  only  real  and  enduring  things. 
All  else  was  evanescent  and  ever  changing. 

We  have  endeavored  to  find  in  the  realm  of  mind  certain 
fixed  principles  as  fundamental,  immutably  true,  and  trust- 
worthy as  the  principles  of  geometry,  by  which  the  mariner 
guides  his  course  upon  the  pathless  deep.  In  the  New  Tes- 
tament doctrine  of  faith,  as  it  was  viewed  by  Jesus,  and 


THE   PRIMITmB   MIND-CURE.  11 

Paul,  and  even  Plato,  we  affirm  that  we  have  such  a  principle 
in  its  application  to  the  cure  of  the  diseases  of  the  soul  and 
the  body.  When  properly  understood  we  see  why,  as  Jesus 
declared,  it  is  ever  unto  us  according  to  our  faith  (Matt. 
ix :  29).  This  is  a  principle  as  certain  in  the  laws  of  mind, 
and  as  reliable  as  that  a  straight  line  is  the  shortest  distance 
between  two  given  points,  or  the  dem  nstrated  theorem  that 
in  every  right-angled  triangle  the  square  of  the  hypothenuse 
is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  squares  of  the  other  two  sides. 
Faith  may  be  defined  to  be  the  power  of  perceiving  spir- 
itual realities  that  lie  above  and  beyond  the  range  of  the 
senses,  and  a  confidence  in  those  higher  truths.  This  is 
essentially  the  definition  of  it  given  by  the  unknown  Kabal- 
istic  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  (Heb.  xi :  1) . 

Faith  is  the  source  of  all  spiritual  power.  The  end  and 
purpose  of  all  education  is,  and  will  be  of  our  present 
studies,  the  achievement  of  spiritual  development  and  the 
attainment  of  a  truly  spiritual  mode  and  habit  of  thought. 
In  other  words,  our  aim  should  be  expressed  in  the  compre- 
hensive prayer,  "  Lord,  increase  our  faith"  (Luke  xvii :  5). 
This  implies  that  we  already  have  faith  in  a  degree,  which 
only  needs  to  be  augmented  and  turned  in  the  right  direc- 
tion. On  this  subject  INlJi'.  A.  P.  Sinnett  very  justly  remarks  : 
"  One  may  illustrate  this  point  by  reference  to  a  very 
common-placj  physical  exercise.  Every  man  living,  having 
the  ordinary  use  of  his  limbs,  is  qualified  to  swim.  But  put 
those  who  cannot  swim,  as  the  common  phrase  goes,  into 
deep  water,  and  they  will  struggle  and  be  drowned.  The 
mere  way  to  move  the  limbs  is  no  mystery ;  but  unless  the 
swimmer  in  moving  them  has  a  full  belief  that  such  move- 
ment will  produce  the  required  result,  the  required  result  is 
not  produced.  In  this  case  we  are  dealing  with  mechanical 
forces  merel}',  but  the  same  principle  runs  up  into  dealings 
with  subtler  forces."  Of  the  power  which  resides  in  faith,  he 
gives  as   instances    the   marvels    wrought   by   the  genuine 


12  THE    PRIMrriVE    MIND-CXniE. 

Oriental  adepts.  Their  training  is  designed  to  develop  the 
principle  of  faith.  {Esoteric  Buddhism^  p.  12.)  Read  also 
on  the  same  subject  the  eleventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews.  But  every  one  will  ask,  "  How  may  we  get 
this  faith  ?  "  In  this  case  the  questioner  is  like  the  man  who 
is  anxiously  hunting  around  the  house  to  find  his  spectacles, 
but  all  the  time  has  them  on  and  is  looking  through  them. 
We  already  have  faith,  and  are  perpetually  acting  under  its 
influence  and  guidance,  but  have  not  learned  its  higher  appli- 
cations and  uses.  Faith  is  only  that  intuitive  intellectual 
perception  that  lies  above  the  range  of  the  sensuous  plane 
of  the  mind's  action,  and  which  we  call  into  exercise  every 
time  we  correct  the  illusions  of  our  senses,  and  judge  and 
act  contrary  to  their  deceptive  appearances.  "VVTienever  we 
judge,  not  according  to  appearance,  but  judge  righteously  or 
according  to  a  divine  rectitude  of  thought,  we  exercise  faith. 
When  I  perceive  that  the  reflected  image  from  a  mirror  is 
not  a  solid  object  behind  the  mirror,  or  that  the  earth  turns 
on  its  axis,  and  that  the  sun  does  not  rise  and  set,  it  is  that 
higher  form  of  knowledge  which  is  called  faith. 

According  to  the  idealistic  philosophy,  thought  and  exist- 
ence are  absolutely  identical  and  inseparable.  This  is  a  prin- 
ciple as  universally  true  as  that  two  straight  lines  which  are 
parallel  will  never  meet,  however  far  they  may  be  extended, 
or  the  proposition  that  the  whole  of  a  thing  is  equal  to  the 
sum  of  all  its  parts.  Bishop  Berkeley,  after  remarking  that 
time  is  nothing  abstracted  from  the  succession  of  ideas  iu 
our  minds,  and  that  the  duration  of  any  finite  existence 
must  be  estimated  b}-  the  number  of  ideas,  or  actions,  suc- 
ceeding each  other  in  that  individual  spirit  or  mind,  says : 
"Hence,  it  is  a  plain  consequence  that  the  soul  always 
thinks ;  and,  in  truth,  whoever  shall  go  about  to  divide  in 
his  thoughts,  or  abstract  the  existence  of  a  spirit  from  its 
cogitation,  will,  I  believe,  find  it  no  easy  task."  {Principles 
of  Human  Knowledge,  sec.  98.) 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  13 

Pure  thought  is  the  summit  of  our  being.  It  is  the  Kabal 
istic  Crown,  and  is  spu-it ;  and,  by  divine  appointment,  gov- 
erns and  controls  all  below  it.  It  is  the  point  where  our 
individual  existence  flows  out  from  the  "Unknown."  The 
attainment  of  the  power  to  think  spiritually  and  spontane- 
ously, in  contradistinction  from  the  possession  of  a  set  of 
borrowed  opinions,  is  the  "crown  of  life."  Since  to  think 
and  to  exist  ai'C  one  and  the  same,  a  man  in  whatsoever  con- 
dition he  is,  whether  in  health  or  disease,  whether  happy  or 
the  opposite,  is  only  the  expression  or  external  translation  of 
his  thoughts  and  ideas.  He  is  the  perpetual  creation  of  his 
fixed  mode  of  thought.  The  world  and  all  the  things  it  con- 
tains, including  the  body  of  man,  having  no  thought  in  them- 
selves, do  not  exist  in  and  for  themselves,  but  exist  only  in 
us,  and  as  Schopenhaur  has  truly  said,  are  to  us  only  what 
we  think  and  believe  them  to  be.  As  thought  and  existence 
are  identical,  a  change  of  thought  must  necessarily  modify 
our  existence.  To  thinTi  a  change  in  our  bodily  condition, 
and  not  merely  to  think  about  it,  will  determine  all  the  living 
forces  toward  that  result,  as  certainly  as  a  stream  issuing 
from  a  fountain  will  flow  in  another  direction  when  we  change 
the  direction  of  its  channel. 

If  thought  is  the  first  act  of  our  individual  spiritual  exist- 
ence, and  a  perpetual  concomitant  of  it,  and  is  the  primal 
force  and  most  subtle  energy  in  the  universe,  the  question 
will  arise,  is  thought  free  and  subject  to  no  law  above  itself? 
Can  we  think  when  and  what  we  please?  In  disease,  can  I 
think  that  I  am  well?  In  pain,  can  I  think  that  I  have  no 
pain?  I  answer  unhesitatingly,  I  can.  All  things  are  pos- 
sible to  thought.  I  can  tliinh  that  five  plus  four  is  twelve, 
but  may  not  be  able  to  believe  it  until  the  thought  is  joined 
with  feeling  in  some  degree.  A  man  may  think  that  his 
dwelling  is  on  fire  when  it  is  not,  and  he  is  affected  by 
it ;  or  he  may  think  that  his  house  is  not  on  fire  when  it  is, 
and  in  the  latter  case  he  feels  no  alarm.      In  bc*th  cases 


14  THE    PIMMITIVE    MIND-CUBE. 

his  thought  modifies  his  existence.  A  man  may  think  he  is 
dying  when  he  is  not ;  or,  when  he  is  passing  through  what 
the  world  calls  death,  he  may  both  think  and  feel  that  it  is 
only  a  higher  form  of  life,  and  that  there  is  no  death.  In 
sickness,  it  is  possible  to  think,  and  even  believe,  that  the 
disease  does  not  belong  to  the  class  of  truly  existing  tilings, 
but  is  only  a  phenomenon  or  appearance,  a  false  seeming, 
an  iUusion.  This  thought  maintained  will  vindicate  its 
right  to  be  called  the  Crown  by  transforming  all  below  it 
into  its  expression.  Thought  may  be  subject  to  certain 
laws  or  fixed  rules  of  action,  as  may  be  predicated  of  the 
Divine  nature  itself,  but  is  absolutely  free ;  for  the  laws  of 
its  activity  arise  from  its  own  essence.  It  knows  no  higher 
law  than  itself.  Pure  thought  is  the  first  emanation  from 
God,  as  is  seen  in  the  Kabalistic  scheme  of  the  Ten  Sephi- 
roth.  It  is  not  a  mere  attribute  or  faculty  of  spirit ;  it  is 
spirit  itself.  We  cannot  abstract  thought  from  spirit  any 
more  than  a  smile  can  be  separated  from  a  human  face,  and 
left  as  an  entity  in  empty  space  ;  and  the  spirit  as  the  first 
emanation  from  God,  as  the  Kabala  affirms,  is  the  Son  of 
God.  And  as  the  Father  has  life  in  himself,  so  he  has  given 
to  the  Son  (or  the  spirit)  to  have  life  in  himself ;  and  he 
o-ave  him  authority  also  to  execute  judgment  because  he  is 
also  the  son  of  man.  (John  v  :  26,  27.)  .  The  essential 
characteristic  of  spirit,  and  which  inheres  in  its  very  essence, 
as  Hegel  has  said,  is  freedom  and  spontaneity.  It  originates 
action  or  motion,  as  Plato  teaches.  The  essential  property 
of  matter  is  passivity  or  fatality.  Thought  is  not  lilvC  the 
vane  on  the  church  tower,  turning  in  every  direction  from 
the  action  of  a  force  existing  outside  of  itself.  But  the 
spu'it  is  a  wind  or  breath  of  God  that  bloweth  where  it 
listeth.  (John  iii  :  8.)  It  chooses  its  own  direction  in 
which  to  act.  There  is  nothing  above  it  but  the  "  Un- 
known God,"  out  of  whom  it  porpetiially  springs.  As  tho 
sun  is  never  separated  from  any  of  his  rays,  but  acts  as  ono 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CDRE.  15 

with  each  and  all  of  them,  so  the  "  Father  of  spirits  "  always 
approves  and  sanctions  the  action  of  pure  spiritual  thought. 
For  pure  thought  is  the  Protogonos,  the  first  begotten,  the 
son  and  perpetual  offsi)ring  of  God,  and  from  him  it  is  never 
sundered.  If  thought  and  existence  are  identical,  then  it 
follows  that  to  think  rightly  is  to  be  well  and  happy.  All 
matter  including  the  human  body  exists  only  in  mind,  which 
is  the  only  substance.  It  exists  from  thought  and  in  thought. 
Hence,  the  body  is  to  me,  and  for  me,  what  I  think  it  to  be. 
This  is  an  absolute  and  irrepealable  law  of  our  being,  as 
much  so  as  that  all  right-angled  triangles  are  equal  to  each 
other,  or  that  every  circle,  great  or  small,  contains  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty  degrees.  How  soon  a  change  of  thought  and 
feeling,  as  in  passing  from  melancholy  to  cheerfulness,  trans- 
lates itself  into  a  bodily  expression  !  So  when  doubt  and 
despair  give  place  to  hope  and  the  full  assurance  of  faith, 
the  change  expresses  itself  immediately  in  the  face,  which 
is  the  index  of  our  interior  states  of  mind  and  body.  Be- 
hold in  this  the  creative  omnipotence  of  thought  and  feeling. 
Thought  and  feeling  are  the  Elohim,  the  Dii  Poteiites,  the 
creative  potencies  in  our  microcosm  or  lesser  world,  as  they 
are  in  the  macrocosm  or  greater  world  of  ideas,  and  they  are 
continually  saying  in  us,  "  Let  us  make  the  body  after  our 
image  and  likeness."  In  the  above  short  sentence,  as  in  a 
casket,  lies  the  golden  key  which  unlocks  the  mj'steries  of 
health  and  disease. 

That  which  we  most  need  is  to  develop  into  consciousness 
our  inner  and  higher  life,  and  to  give  to  it  what  rightfully 
belongs  to  it  —  an  absolute  sovereignty  over  all  below  it. 
It  should  be  our  aim  to  elevate  the  principle  of  thought  above 
the  plane  of  the  senses,  and  free  it  from  their  distorting 
influences.  "  This  elevation  above  sensual  things  was  known 
to  the  ancients,  and  their  wise  men  said  that  when  the  mind 
is  withdrawn  from  sensual  things,  it  comes  into  an  interior 
light,  and,  at  the  same  time,  into  a  tranquil  state,  and  into 


16  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CDEE. 

a  sort  of  heavenly  blessedness.  Man  is  capable  of  being 
yet  more  interiorly  elevated ;  and  the  more  interiorly  he  is 
elevated,  into  so  much  the  clearer  light  does  he  come,  and  at 
length  into  the  light  of  heaven,  which  is  nothing  else  but 
wisdom  and  intelligence  from  the  Lord."  {Arcana  Celestia, 
6313.)  As  thought  becomes  more  internal,  or  elevated 
above  the  body  and  the  external  senses,  it  becomes  more 
potential.  This  is  the  true  meaning  of  healing  ourselves  or 
others.  It  is  the  emancipation  of  the  soul  from  material 
thraldom.  And,  when  the  soul  is  saved  from  its  illusions, 
the  body  can  well  be  left  to  take  care  of  itself.     Says  Paul : 

TO  Se  (jipovrjjjia  tov  TTi/eu/Aaros  C^r]  koI   elpiivr],  the   thought  of   the 

spirit  is  life  and  peace  ;  but  the  thought  of  the  fleshly  mind 
(or  the  habit  of  thinking  on  a  level  witli  the  body) ,  is  death. 
(Rom.  viii  :  6,  7.)  This  passage  contains,  in  a  small  com- 
pass, the  true  philosophy  of  salvation  in  the  full  sense  of  the 
word.  It  will  be  our  work  to  develop  this  living  germ  and 
fruitful  seed  of  truth  into  a  tree  whose  leaves  shall  be  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations. 

We  encounter  at  the  outset  in  our  instruction  a  great  evil, 
and  one  that  has  served  to  hold  humanity  down  and  prevent 
its  rising  from  the  plane  of  sense  to  the  life  of  faith.  I  refer 
to  the  fact  that  the  church.  Catholic  and  Protestant,  has 
claimed  a  monopoly  of  the  principle  of  faith.  They  have 
connected  it  with  certain  dogmas  which  are,  to  many  intelli- 
gent minds,  unreasonable,  absurd,  and  incredible.  They 
have  enclosed  the  divine  and  saving  principle  of  faith  in 
what  looks  to  many  as  an  unseemly  wrapper,  like  the  pre- 
cious goods  of  the  merchant  in  coarse  paper,  and  they  refuse 
to  deliver  the  merchandise  unless  you  take  it  in  the  unsightly 
wrapper.  The  invalid  or  sinner  (as  the  case  may  be)  desires 
to  be  healed  or  saved,  and  works  himself  into  a  M'illingness 
to  take  the  standard  theological  medicine  as  the  less  of  two 
evils,  but  he  cannot  avoid  saying  (or  at  least  thinking)  with 
Whitticr :  — 


THE   PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  17 

"  I  trace  your  lines  of  argument ; 
Your  logic  linked  and  strong 
I  weigh  as  one  who  dreads  dissent. 
And  fears  a  doubt  as  wrong. 

But  still  my  human  hands  are  weak 

To  hold  your  iron  creeds  ; 
Against  the  words  ye  bid  me  speak 

My  heart  within  me  pleads." 

But,  at  the  present  time,  many  people  are  beginning  to 
feel  that  they  can  buy  directly  of  the  Clirist  "  gold  tried  in 
the  fii-e,"  and  enclose  the  celestial  and  enduring  good  in  their 
own  theological  envelope.  Faith  is  a  philosophical  and 
scientific  principle  much  older  than  even  Plato,  and  belongs, 
by  just  right,  as  an  exclusive  property  to  no  one  sect,  but 
to  all  mankind,  as  much  so  as  the  light  of  the  sun.  In  these 
lessons  we  shall  try  and  put  you  in  possession  of  this  "pearl 
of  great  price,"  and  leave  you  to  find  your  own  casket.  I 
can  but  feel  that  those  persons  in  the  various  churches  who 
have  unselfishly  devoted  themselves  to  the  practice  of  the 
faith  cure,  and  who  include  in  their  number  many  of  the 
choicest  spirits  on  earth,  would  find  their  success  still  greater 
if  they  could  divorce  more  fully  the  saving  principle  of  faith 
from  un-Christian  and  mentally  unwholesome  theological 
dogmas.  In  other  words,  let  us  give  allopathic  prescriptions 
of  pure  religion,  but  infinitesimal  doses  of  the  popular 
theology.  It  is  to  be  hoped  this  suggestion  will  be  taken  in 
the  spirit  in  which  it  is  given ;  for,  as  one  has  beautifully 
said :  — 

"A  bending  staff  I  would  not  break, 
A  feeble  faith  I  would  not  shake, 
Nor  even  rashly  pluck  away 
The  error  which  some  truth  may  stay. 
Whose  loss  might  leave  the  soul  without 
A  shield  against  the  shafts  of  doubt." 


18  THE   PRIMITIVE   inND-CURE. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   TRrONE   CONSTITUTION   OF   MAN   AND   THE   DISCOVERT   OF 
THE    TRUE    SELF. 

It  is  the  object  of  these  lessons  to  lead  gradually,  and  by 
succeijsive  steps,  to  the  development  of  the  unexplored,  and, 
in  modern  times,  almost  universally  unrecognized,  but  really 
vast  powers  for  good  that  belong  to  a  trul}'  religious  and  spirit- 
ual faith — a  faith  that  perceives  being  in  opposition  to  a  mere 
sensuous  and  illusory  appearance.  There  is  a  faith  that  per- 
ceives and  consciously  recognizes  those  truths  and  realities 
which  lie  beyond  the  grasp  of  the  animal  or  psychical  man 
or  mind.  In  the  Sanscrit  language,  in  which  is  locked  up 
the  profoundest  truths  ever  revealed  to  the  human  mind,  tht^ 
word  for  truth  is  sat  or  satya,  which  is  the  participle  of  the 
verb  as,  to  be.  Hence,  truth  is  that  which  is,  in  contradis- 
tinction from  that  which  only  seems  to  be.  It  is  the  rb  ovrojs 
01',  or  truly  existing  being  of  Plato  ;  the  amen  of  Jesus  and 
Paul.  Faith  is  the  perception  of  these  supersensuous  truths, 
and  says  of  them,  "these  are  that  which  really  is,"  and 
maintains  this  attitude  of  thought  in  opposition  to  the  falla- 
cious and  deceptive  appearances  of  the  senses. 

In  order  to  reach  this  position  of  thought,  we  must  first 
discover  our  true  self.  To  him  who  would  become  spiritual 
this  is  of  supreme  importance.  When  we  discover  our  i-eal 
self,  we  find  at  the  same  time  God,  and  health,  and  heaven. 
In  the  philosophy  of  the  Vedas,  which  means  real  knowledge, 
all  the  ordinary  names  of  God,  as  the  Almighty,  the  Creator, 
etc.,  are  laid  aside,  and  the  single  name  Atman,  the  Self, 
is  used  to  denote  the  divine  Being.     This  does  not  refer  to 


THE    nUMITIVE    MIND-CUllE.  19 

the  Aditi,  the  Boundless,  the  Absolute  Behig,  which  is  name* 
less,  but  to  the  highest  manifestation  of  the  Supreme  Divine 
Essence.  It  is  the  Self,  or  underlying,  or  inmost  Reality,  of 
all  that  is.  It  is  the  Absolute  Self,  which  includes  our  indi- 
vidual self  in  it.  The  Atman  is  the  Self  in  which  each  in- 
dividual self  must  find  rest,  must  come  to  himself,  must  find 
his  own  true  self,  the  immortal  Monad,  the  spiritual  and 
imperishable  entity.  All  this  teaches  the  sublime  truth  of 
faith,  that  in  our  inmost  being  we  become  identified  with  the 
Divine  Nature.  The  highest  wisdom  of  Greece  was  expressed 
in  the  precept,  "know  thyself."  "When  we  find  our  real 
self,  everything  afterwards  in  our  path  is  easy.  We  must, 
in  the  outset,  as  the  French  would  say,  find  our  true  East 
{s'orienter) ,  and  fix  our  true  position  among  created  things. 
We  must  ascertain  the  direction  in  which  we  are  to  look  for 
spiritual  wisdom,  and  the  region  of  our  being  where  alone  it 
can  be  found. 

In  the  Vedanta  philosophy  of  India,  the  oldest  religious 
philosophy  of  the  world,  it  is  said:  "There  is  nothing 
higher  than  the  attainment  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Self." 
Again:  "Despising  everything  else,  a  wise  man  should 
strive  after  the  knowledge  of  the  self."  This  highest  Self 
is  called  in  the  Vedanta,  which  means  the  end  or  goal  of  the 
Veda,  the  "  silent  thinker,"  as  being  the  inmost  spring  of  all 
thought.  It  is  also  called  "the  one  who  knows,"  as  it 
partakes  of  the  Divine  Omniscience.  It  is  also  the  "  old  man 
within,"  who  is  identical  with  the  Kabalistic  "Ancient  of 
Days,"  "  the  holy  elder,"  which  means  the  inward  sage,  the 
source  of  all  true  knowledge,  and  fountain  of  all  tiaie  wisdom, 
for  at  this  point  it  opens  into  that  in  which  are  hid  all  the 
treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  This  inmost  self  in  us 
is  a  person  only  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  as  a  mask  that 
conceals  and  partly  reveals  the  universal  spirit.  To  discover 
our  real  self,  and  to  find  it  included  in  the  being  of  the  mnn- 
ifested  God,   the  Christ  of   Paul,   is  the   Platonic  idea  o^* 


20  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND -CURE. 

redemption,  and  is  tlie  summit  of  all  spiritual  knowledge. 
It  is  faith  in  its  supreme  sense. 

The  Atman  of  the  Vedanta,  the  highest  Self,  and  the 
Christ  of  Paul,  the  Adam  Kadmon  of  the  Kabala,  are  the 
same  as  the  "Over-Soul"  of  Emerson.  He  says  of  it: 
"The  Supreme  Critic  on  the  errors  of  the  past  and  the 
present,  and  the  only  prophet  of  that  which  must  be,  is  thai 
great  nature  in  which  we  rest,  as  the  earth  lies  in  the  soft 
arms  of  the  atmosphere  ;  that  Unity,  that  Over-Soul,  withia 
which  every  man's  particular  being  is  contained  and  made 
one  with  all  others."     (Essays,  First  Series,  p.  214.) 

In  another  place,  speaking  of  the  Over-Soul,  Emerson 
says:  "Of  this  pure  nature  every  man  is  at  some  time 
sensible.  Language  cannot  paint  it  with  his  colors.  It  is 
too  subtile.  It  is  undefinable,  unmeasm-able,  but  we  know 
that  it  pervades  and  contains  us.  We  know  that  all  spiritual 
being  is  in  man.  A  wise  old  proverb  says,  '  God  comes  to 
see  us  without  bell' ;  that  is,  as  there  is  no  screen  or  ceiling 
between  our  heads  and  the  infinite  heavens,  so  is  there  no 
bar  or  wall  in  the  soul  where  man,  the  effect,  ceases,  and 
God,  the  cause,  begins.  The  walls  are  taken  away.  We  lie 
open  on  one  side  to  the  deeps  of  spiritual  nature,  to  the 
attributes  of  God."     {Essays,  First  Series,  p.  216.) 

The  importance  of  finding  this  higher  self,  and  develop- 
ing it  into  consciousness,  cannot  be  overstated.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  all  spiritual  growth.  It  has  always  been  earnestly 
insisted  upon  by  all  who  have  written  anything  on  the 
deeper  philosophy  of  human  nature.  The  celebrated  Ara- 
bian philosopher,  Muhammed  Al  Ghazzali,  who  was  born 
A.r>.  1056,  wrote  a  work  entitled  The  Alchemy  of  Happiness. 
It  contains  the  principles  of  a  profound  spiritual  science, 
the  same  that  were  taught  under  impenetrable  symbols  by 
the  Alchemists  of  the  middle  ages.  Al  Ghazzali  commences 
his  work  with  these  important  words,  which  are  the  key  to 
all  spiritual  science :  "  O  seeker  after  the  divine  mysteries  J 


THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  21 

know  thou  that  the  door  to  the  knowledge  of  God  will  be 
opened  to  a  man  first  of  all,  when  he  knows  his  own  soul, 
and  understands  the  truth  about  his  own  spirit,  according  as 
it  has  been  revealed.  '  He  who  knows  himself,  knows  his 
Lord  also.'  Again,  in  the  books  of  former  prophets  it  is 
written,  '  Know  thine  own  soul,  and  thou  shalt  know  thy 
Lord ' ;  and  we  have  received  it  in  a  tradition,  '  He  who 
knows  himself,  already  knows  his  Lord.'  This  is  a  con- 
vincing argument  that  the  soul  (or  spirit)  is  like  a  clean 
muTor  into  which,  whenever  a  person  looks,  he  may  there 
see  God."  This  was  written  eight  centuries  ago.  But 
thousands  of  years  before  this  it  was  said  in  the  Vedanta  of 
India,  "  There  is  one  eternal  thinker,  thinking  non-eternal 
thoughts  ;  he,  though  one,  fulfils  the  desires  of  many.  The 
wise  who  perceive  him  within  their  self,  to  them  belongs 
eternal  life,  eternal  peace."  {India,  hj  Max  Miiller,  p. 
2G0.) 

That  man  possesses  a  triune  nature,  and  is  capable  of 
living  and  acting  on  either  of  three  distinct  planes  of  being, 
or,  as  it  is  stated  in  the  spiritual  philosophy  of  Swedeuborg, 
that  there  are  thi*ee  discrete  degrees  of  the  mind,  is  one  of 
the  oldest  doctrines  of  philosophy,  but  is  wholly  unrecog- 
nized in  our  modern  systems  of  metaphysics.  It  is  a  funda- 
mental idea  in  the  New  Testament  psychology,  as  also  in 
the  philosoph}'  of  Plato,  and  is  the  ke}'  to  the  theosophical 
sj'stem  of  the  Christ.  In  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalo- 
nians,  Paul  gives  the  Platonic  statement  of  this  doctrine  : 
"And  the  God  of  peace  himself  sanctify  you  wholly,  and 
may  your  spirit,  and  soul,  and  body  be  preserved  whule  (or 
entire)  without  blame  at  the  appearance  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  (I  Thes.  v:  23.)  The  body  is  here  used  for  the 
lowest  degree  of  the  mind,  the  animal  nature  with  the  degree 
of  intellect  that  belongs  to  it.  It  is  that  which  is  called  in 
the  writings  of  Paul  the  carnal  or  fleshly  mind.  It  is  the 
Linga  Sharira  of  Esoteric  Buddhism,  or  what  is  called  the 


22  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

astral  body.  It  is  of  an  ethevial  nature,  but  not  immortal. 
It  belongs  to  this  material  stage  of  our  existence,  and  is 
that  intermediate  principle  which  connects  the  higher  degrees 
of  the  mind  or  thinking  substance  with  matter  and  with 
the  body. 

The  lowest  degree  of  our  immortal  nature  is  called  the 
animal  soul,  and  is  the  psyche  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
constitutes  what  the  Apostle  Paul  denominates  the  psychical 
vian,  which  is  badl}'  translated  "the  natural  man,"  which 
designation  of  it  is  followed  by  Swedenborg.  It  is  the 
region  in  us  of  what  is  called  external  sense.  It  is  also  the 
seat  of  all  the  animal  appetites  and  passions.  As  such,  it 
was  denominated  by  Pythagoras  thumos,  and  by  the  Bud- 
dhists is  called  kavia  nqxi,  or  body  of  desire,  and  vehicle  of 
will.  By  the  Hebrews  it  was  called  nephesh,  and  is  the  ser- 
pent of  Genesis,  through  the  influence  of  which  man  fell 
from  the  spiritual  state  into  whiph  he  was  created  into  a  sen- 
suous or  psychical  condition.  And  as  Moses  lifted  up  the 
serpent  in  the  wilderness  on  the  cross  as  the  Kabalistic  tree 
of  life,  so  must  the  son  of  man,  or  the  animal  soul,  be  lifted 
up.  (John  iii :  14.)  For  though  humanity,  on  this  plane  of 
mental  being,  is  animal  in  its  nature  when  compared  with 
spirit,  it  is  elevated  above  the  correctly  defined  animal  crea- 
tion in  every  other  respect.  And  though  this  region  is 
called  the  animal  soul,  as  it  is  the  highest  developed  principle 
of  the  brute  creation,  it  is  yet  susceptible  of  evolution  into 
something  far  higher,  b}'  its  union  with  the  higher  degrees 
of  our  being.      {Esoteric  Buddhism,  by  A.  P.  Sinnet,  p.  25.) 

To  this  region  of  mind  belongs,  according  to  Plato,  what 
we  denominate  opinion,  or  the  reception  of  the  beliefs  of 
others.  Opinions  may  be  founded  on  truth,  or  they  may 
be  false.  When  true,  they  come  next  to  knowledge  as  a 
practical  guide,  and  as  near  to  genuine  fixith  as  the  large 
majority  of  mankind  ever  come.  Here,  also,  is  what  we 
call   reason,    which    is   a   much   less    unerring   guide   than 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUEE.  23 

histiuct,  wliicli  belongs  to  the  animal  soul,  and  which  brings 
us  to  the  boundaries  of  the  next  higher  degree.  Instinct  in 
man  and  animals  is  the  knowledge  that  we  derive  from  the 
Universal  Soul  or  Mind,  of  wliich  our  soul  is  only  a  personal 
limitation,  or  individual  expression.  The  animal  soul  is  the 
basement  story  of  our  immaterial,  intellectual  nature.  It  is 
the  region  in  us  of  the  evil  and  the  false,  of  sin  and  disease ; 
and  we  must  acquire  the  power  of  transferring  our  con- 
sciousness to  a  more  internal  plane  of  being. 

The  next  degree  or  region  of  the  mind  is  where  it  rises 
above  the  darkness  and  fallacies  of  the  senses,  and  thinks 
and  acts  on  the  plane  of  pure  intellect.  It  is  the  region  of 
spiritual  intelligence  in  distinction  from  external  science  or 
sensuous  knowledge,  which  belongs  to  a  lower  intellectual 
range.  It  is  called  in  the  Sanscrit  manas^  which  is  trans- 
lated human  soul,  as  it  is  the  distinctively  human  principle, 
and  that  which  distinguishes  man  from  the  highest  of  the 
animal  kingdom.  It  has  been  called  also  the  rational  soul, 
but  is  more  properly  designated  the  intellectual  soul,  as 
reason  belongs  to  the  psychical  man,  and  never  discovers 
truth.  It  is  a  distinct  mind,  including  the  intellect  and  all 
the  emotions  and  affections  that  belong  to  the  mind.  It  is 
the  interior  man.  Its  development  into  consciousness  should 
be  our  highest  aim.  After  the  anastasis  of  Jesus  he 
appeared  to  the  disciples  and  opened  their  understanding 
(noema,  not  psyche,  or  animal  soul)  that  they  miglit  under- 
stand the  Scriptures  (Luke  xxiv:45).  And  the  psalmist 
prays:  "Open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  see  wondrous 
tilings  out  of  thy  law"  (Ps.  exix  :  18).  This  is  that  region 
of  mind  that  perceives  things  in  idea,  and  consequently  inde- 
pendently of  the  senses.  Its  range  of  vision  is  well-nigh 
unlimited.  In  this  region  of  our  being  the  divine  omnis- 
cience comes  to  the  dawning  in  us.  Of  the  state  of  intellec- 
tual lucidity  and  spiritual  vision  that  is  natural  to  this  degree 
of  the  mind,  Paul  speaks  as  "  having  the  eyes  of  the  under- 


24  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

standing  enlightened"  (Eph.  i:18).  And  he  pra3-s  thui 
the  Colossian  Christians  miglit  be  filled  with  tlie  knowledge 
of  God's  will  in  all  wisdom  and  spiritual  understanding  or 
discernment  (Col.  i:9).  The  intellectual  soul  is  a  region 
of  mental  elevation,  or  rather  inwardness,  where  man  is  no 
longer  blinded  by  the  external  senses,  but  where  the  higher 
perceptive  faculties  act  independent  of  all  organic  instru- 
ments. It  is  what  Swedenborg  inaccurately  denominates  the 
spiritual  man,  though  he  properly  apprehends  and  describes 
this  state  of  man. 

It  is  proper  to  remark  that  this  distinct  region  of  mind  and 
higher  story  or  plane  of  our  being  is  the  seat  of  faith,  which 
is  the  perception  of  truth  lying  above  the  range  of  the  senses. 
It  is  the  location  in  us,  so  to  speak,  of  the  higher  senses  and 
of  ideas.  In  it  also  is  found  conscience,  of  which  animals 
are  destitute.  In  it  we  perceive  reality,  the  rita  of  the 
Sanscrit,  which  answers  to  the  Kabalistic  justice  and  Paul's 
"righteousness  of  faith,"  which  signifies  the  perception  of 
real  truth  in  opposition  to  the  illusions  of  the  senses. 

As  the  intellectual  soul  is  the  real  man,  and  is  capable  of 
thinking  and  acting  independent  of  both  time  and  space, 
which  are  not  external  to  it,  but  only  modes  and  states  of 
thought,  it  can  transfer  its  real  presence  and  personality  to 
any  place  however  remote.  As  in  this  degree  of  our  being 
we  begin  to  partake  of  the  divine  omniscience,  so  also  we 
begin  to  share  the  divine  omnipresence.  It  is  this  principle 
hi  us,  when  conjoined  with  the  more  subtle  elements  of  the 
animal  soul,  that  is  capable  of  going  where  it  pleases,  and  of 
actually  appearing  to  distant  persons,  and  speaking  to  the 
inward  ear,  as  we  read  of  the  Hindu  adepts.  This  is  done 
by  them  b}'  the  application  of  certain  mental  forces  and 
spiritual  laws,  a  knowledge  of  which  can  be  acquired.  Tliis 
occasionally  takes  place  with  persons  at  the  hour  of  death, 
but  could  be  done  as  well  before  this  if  we  learn  to  free  the 
interior  man  from  the  trammels  of  the  body.     Swedenborg 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  25 

affirms  from  his  own  experience  that  the  spaces  and  dis- 
tances, and  consequent  progressions  or  movements  which 
exist  in  the  natural  world  are,  in  their  origin  and  first  cause, 
only  changes  of  the  state  of  interior  things  ;  in  other  words, 
of  thought  and  feeling.  And  man,  as  to  his  spirit,  is  capa- 
ble of  translation  to  any  distance,  while  the  physical  body 
continues  in  its  own  place.  {Earths  in  the  Universe,  sec. 
125.) 

Tlie  pneuma  or  spirit  is  the  supreme  degree  of  the  mind  or 
thinking  principle,  —  the  dome  of  the  temple  of  God  in  man, 
where  our  being  rises  into  the  immeasurable  heavens.  The 
pneuma  of  Jesus  and  Paul  is  the  inmost  degree  of  the  mind, 
the  angelic  and  divine  man,  the  immortal  and  real  self.  It 
is  the  celestial  range  of  the  mind's  activity,  and  the  seat  of 
the  divinest  powers  and  capabilities  of  human  nature,  since, 
as  Jesus  declares,  "God  is  Spirit,"  man  as  a  spirit  comes 
into  close  relationship  to  the  Godhead.  Says  Philo,  the 
mystic  Alexandrian  Jew,  in  a  letter  to  Hephsestion,  "  God 
has  breathed  into  man  from  heaven  a  portion  of  his  own 
divinity.  That  which  is  divine  is  invisible.  It  may  be  extended, 
but  is  incapable  of  separation.  Consider  how  vast  is  the 
range  of  thought  over  the  past  and  the  future,  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.  This  alliance  with  an  upper  world,  of  which 
we  are  conscious,  would  be  impossible  were  not  the  soul 
(spirit)  of  man  an  indivisible  portion  of  that  divine  and 
blessed  Soul."  The  spiritual  degree  of  the  mind  is  the  divine 
realm  of  our  being  where  the  boundary  line  that  distinguishes 
our  individual  existence  from  the  Godhead  is  obscurely 
marked,  so  that  where  the  one  ends  and  the  other  begins  can 
with  difficulty  be  discerned.  Here  each  one  of  us  is  a  finite 
limitation  of  the  universal  spirit,  but  not  separate  from  it,  as 
the  air  in  this  room,  though  a  distinct  portion  of  the  boundless 
atmosphere,  is  not  sundered  from  it.  From  this  inmost  depth 
of  his  conscious  life  Jesus,  speaking  for  all  men,  said,  "I  and 
my  Father  are  one  "  ;  and  his  being  became  so  intermingle?' 


26  THE    PRIMITWE    MIND -CURE. 

with  that  of  God  that  he  could  saj',  "  The  Father  is  in  me, 
aud  I  am  in  the  Father." 

"  The  spirit,"  sa3's  Dr.  Wyld,  "  is  the  third  factor  in  the 
triune  man.  It  is  that  which  is  an  atom  or  spark  of  the 
spirit  of  God.  It  is  the  hidden  centre  or  'light  of  every 
man  that  is  born  into  the  world,'  and  hidden  from  the  foun- 
dation of  the  world.  It  is  the  secret  Logos,  which  became 
effulgent  in  Jesus,  and  it  is  that  by  which  only  God  can  be 
known.  It  is  above  and  beyond  reason.  It  is  the  nature  of 
the  knowledge  and  wisdom  and  power  of  God."  {Theosophy 
and  the  Higher  Life^  p.  12.) 

Tins  region  of  our  being  was  denominated  b}'  Pythagoras, 
the  Kous,  pure  intelligence.  In  it  faith  becomes  intuition, 
its  highest  form.  It  is  that  immaterial  and  immortal  sub- 
stance, or  essence,  that  is  called  in  the  German,  geist;  in 
the  French,  esprit;  and  in  the  New  Testament,  pneuma. 
But  the  Sanscrit  designation  of  it  as  huddhi  is  the  most 
expressive  of  all  the  names  given  to  it  in  the  various  lan- 
guages. This  means  about  the  same  as  the  inward  Christ 
of  Paul.  It  is  the  Christ  principle  within,  and  the  only  hope 
of  glory.  Its  development  in  us,  from  its  latent  state  into 
consciousness,  is  eternal  life.  For  this  region  of  the  real  self 
ie  never  diseased  or  unhappy,  and  never  dies.  "It  is  only 
the  finite  that  suffers,"  says  Emerson;  "the  infinite  lies 
stretched  in  smiling  repose." 

The  spirit  in  man  is  the  ' '  Son  of  God  "  of  which  Paul  and 
the  Kabala  speak.  It  is  also  the  "  inward  voice,"  the  Meta- 
tron,  the  redeeming  angel.  This  still  small  voice  is  the 
Vach^  the  sacred  speech,  the  unutterable  word  of  the  occult 
philiosophy.  This  is  resident  in  the  hidden  depths  of  our 
own  being,  and  in  its  reality  always  comes  from  within,  aud 
never  from  without. 

It  is  a  great  advance  in  our  spiritual  development,  and  an 
important  point  gained  toward  the  attainment  of  a  mental 
power  to  cure  disease  in  ourselves  or  others  when  we  come 


THE   PRIMITIVE   SHND-CURE.  27 

to  a  clear  perception  of  the  truth  that  man  is  akeady  a  spirit, 
and  not  merely  sometime  to  become  one.  Every  man,  as 
to  his  inner  and  real  self,  is  as  vei'itable  a  spirit  as  he  ever 
will  be,  only  he  does  not  know  it ;  and  we  do  not  see  him  as 
such,  because,  in  our  supei'ficial  vision,  we  see  only  that  which 
hides  the  real  man  from  our  sight. 

This  is  the  true  idea  of  man ;  and,  when  intuitively  per- 
ceived, the  idea,  steadfastly  maintained,  will  translate  itself 
into  an  expression  upon  every  plane  of  our  being.  The 
spirit  is  the  supreme  and  celestial  man  ;  and,  by  virtue  of 
its  divine  and  immortal  nature,  it  is  never  diseased  or  un- 
happy. It  possesses  the  right  of  dominion  over  the  lower  or 
outer  degrees  of  our  being.  It  speaks,  and  it  is  done ;  it 
commands,  and  it  stands  fast.  It  is  one  of  the  highesi* 
powers  in  nature  because  it  is  divine. 

It  is  proper  to  remark,  in  closing  this  explication  of  the 
triune  constitution  of  man,  that  this  doctrine  is  absolutel}' 
fundamental,  and  must  be  fully  apprehended  and  appropri- 
ated, or  our  progi-ess  will  hereafter  be  laborious  and  difficult. 
"We  need  so  to  master  this  conception  of  human  nature,  that 
we  can  more  or  less  distinctly  define,  in  our  consciousness, 
the  boundaries  of  these  discrete  regions  of  our  mental  being, 
so  that  our  varying  thoughts  and  feelings,  good  or  evil, 
which  make  up  the  whole  of  human  life,  may  be  referred  to 
their  proper  place  in  us.  To  assist  us  in  doing  this,  and  to 
make  this  desirable  attainment  easier,  and  to  aid  the  memory 
in  tenaciously  holding  this  doctrine,  we  furnish  the  reader 
with  the  accompanying  ancient  diagram  which  symbolically 
represents  it  to  the  eye. 


28 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 


TRIUNE  MAN. 


Nous. 

Pure  Intelligence. 

Inward  Voice. 

Intuition. 

Metatron. 

Vach. 


Justice. 

Faith. 

Ideas. 

Higher  Senses. 

Eeality. 

Conscience. 


Instinct. 

Reason. 

Opinion. 

Appetites. 

Passions. 

Seat  of  Evil. 

Sin.     Disease. 


Matter. 

Maia. 

Shadow. 


Intellectual  Soul 
Logos. 
Manas. 
Euach. 
Human  Soul. 


Animal  Soul. 
External  Sense. 
Psyche  of  N.  T. 
Kama  Rupa. 
Nephesh. 
Psychical  Mau- 
Thumos. 


Body.     Soma. 
Rupa. 
Unreal  Man. 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  29 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   SAVING   POWER   OF   THE    SPIRIT   OF  MAN. 

In  the  region  of  our  own  spirit  we  come  into  s^^mpathetic 
and  receptive  communication  with  the  collective  intelligence, 
or  the  universal  Christ.  There  is  a  unity  in  the  sublime  life 
of  the  spirit  that  leaves  no  room  for  a  mere  isolated  individ- 
uality, a  mere  personal  existence  sundered  from  the  grand 
whole.  Each  discrete  region  of  our  being  is  connected  with 
a  universal  principle  or  sphere  of  existence,  of  which  it  is  a 
personal  limitation.  The  soul  of  man  is  a  part,  so  to  speak, 
of  the  ayiima  mundi,  the  soul  of  the  world. 

The  intellectual  soul  is  a  personal  manifestation  of  the 
"  intelligible  world  "  of  Plato,  the  Logos  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  spirit  is  an  atom,  a  monad,  an  item  in  the  uni- 
versal spirit.  The  parts  are  not  scattered  fragments,  but  are 
inseparably  included  in  the  whole,  and  the  whole  is  in  each 
of  the  parts.  This  grand  whole,  made  up  of  innumerable 
parts,  or  the  universal  world  of  spiritual  intelligence,  is 
called  in  Sanscrit,  Addi-Buddha.  In  the  writings  of  Paul, 
it  is  called  the  Christ.  In  it  there  may  be  distinct,  but 
never  separate  individualities,  any  more  than  there  can  be 
sciparate  raj's  of  light. 

The  spirit  has  in  it  the  life  and  power  of  the  sublime  unity 
of  spirit.  We  should  never  lose  sight  of  this  truth.  The  par- 
ticular, separate  from  the  universal,  is  as  nothing — it  is  power- 
less. The  part,  sundered  from  the  whole,  can  do  nothing. 
Even  Jesus  could  say,  "the  Son  can  do  nothing  of  him- 
self," or  by  himself.  Echoing  this  necessary  and  eternal 
truth,  Emerson  says:  "The  blindness  of  the  intellect  begins 


so  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

when  it  would  be  something  of  itself.  The  weakness  of  the 
will  begins  when  the  individual  would  be  something  of  him- 
self." 

It  was  a  maxim  of  the  Hermetic  philosophy,  that  "power 
belongs  to  him  who  knows,"  which  refers  to  the  true  self,  or 
the  spirit.  Knowledge  is  power.  But  what  knowledge  will 
give  us  the  greatest  power  to  save  ourselves  and  help  us  to 
save  others,  and  how  ma}'  we  reach  the  highest  consciousness 
of  authority  over  disease  and  sin  ?  It  is  only  by  climbing 
up  to  a  position  of  thought  where  we  can  see  that  the  self, 
the  immortal  Ego^  is  neither  diseased  nor  sinful,  but  is  al- 
ready saved,  and  was  never  lost  except  to  our  own  conscious- 
ness. Its  inseparable  conjunction  with  God  on  this  plane  of 
our  being  makes  disease  and  death  an  impossible  concep- 
tion to  it.  Can  we  gain  this  loftier  altitude  of  being  ?  Or  is 
it,  like  the  summits  of  the  loftiest  mountains,  inaccessible  to 
the  foot  of  man  ?  That  there  is  in  us  a  region  of  being  in 
which  divinity  dwells,  and  which  is  never  invaded  by  evil  or 
sin,  or  any  discomfort,  we  can  easily  admit  as  a  theory,  but 
how  can  we  make  it  real  to  our  consciousness  ?  "VVe  can  ap- 
prehend the  idea  intellectually ;  how  can  we  feel  it  to  be 
true?  Jesus,  as  a  Son  of  God,  a  divinely  human  spirit, 
clearly  saw  and  felt  this  great  truth.  But  the  development 
of  souship  in  one  single  person  of  human  history  does  not 
fulfil  the  broadly  benevolent  design  of  Christianity.  Every 
one  who  receives  the  Logos,  the  inner  divine  light  and  Hie, 
becomes  also  a  son  of  God.  (John  ii :  12.)  That  the  real 
self,  the  spirit  of  man,  and  the  son  of  God  is  exempt  from 
evil  and  indestructible,  is  taught  in  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
scriptures,  and  the  spiritual  philosophy  of  all  antiquity.  In 
the  Vedanta  it  is  alErmed,  "No  weapons  will  hurt  the  selj 
of  man  ;  no  fire  will  burn  it ;  no  wind  will  dry  it  up.  It  is 
not  to  be  hurt.  It  is  imperishable,  unchanging,  immovable. 
If  you  know  the  self  of  man  to  be  all  this,  grieve  not."  If 
then  wi!  are  diseased,  and  sinful,  and  unhappy,  it  is  not  in 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  31 

our  true  self,  and  these  things  are  not  to  be  classed  among 
realities,  but  are  appearances  only.  This  truth  of  faith, 
though  dimly  seen,  like  a  star  from  behind  a  cloud,  has  in  it 
a  redeeming  efliciency.  For  the  best  remedy  for  disease  and 
uuhappiness  is  to  find  out  that  I  am  neither  sick  nor  unhappy. 
This  is  the  knowledge  that  has  in  it  a  saving  power.  It  is  a 
profound  truth  of  Christianity  that  our  true  being  is  included 
in  God,  and  there  is  no  evil  in  Him.  It  was  the  object  of 
Fichte  in  his  great  work,  the  Wissenschaftlehi-e,  or  science  of 
knowledge,  to  search  out  and  discover  the  first  and  absolutely 
fundamental  principle  of  human  knowledge.  This  was  sup- 
posed to  be  unprovable^  for  the  reason  that  it  was  a  first 
principle,  and  consequently  there  could  be  nothing  Ij'ing  back 
of  it  that  could  be  a  subject  of  cognition.  This  first  princi- 
ple must  be  in  itself  intuitively  certain,  and  must  be  that 
which  lends  certainty  to  everything  else  which  we  know. 
This  absolutely  fundamental  principle  is  the  Ego,  or  conscious- 
ness of  self.  The  Ego  (the  I,  the  myself) ,  was  regarded  by 
him  as  embracing  within  itself  the  whole  sphere  of  reality. 
Outside  of  it  there  is  absolutely  to  us  nothing.  The  Ego  is 
the  subject  and  the  object.  It  is  that  which  thinks,  and  that 
which  is  thought,  the  perceiver  and  the  perceived,  the  feeling 
and  the  felt.  The  so-called  non  Ego,  or  the  objects  not  my- 
self, are  known  only  in  myself,  and  their  inmost  reality  is 
my  thought.  This  is  as  far  as  science  can  go.  It  is  its  ultima 
Thide.  But  there  is  a  Beyond,  which  Fichte  himself  entered 
in  after  life,  as  unfolded  in  his  Destination  of  Man  and  Way 
to  True  Blessedness.  In  the  region  of  religious  feeling  and 
intuition,  and  the  transcendental  realm  of  faith,  we  rise  to  the 
recognition  of  a  still  more  fundamental  principle.  It  is  not 
merely  that  I  am,  but  this  truth  arises  from  another  back  of 
it,  and  out  of  which  it  springs, —  God  is,  and  I  am  in  Ilim, 
and  I  am  because  He  is.  Our  individual  self  is  found,  as 
the  Vedanta  and  Plato,  and  .Jesus  and  Paul  all  aflirm,  to  be 
included   in   the  contents  of   the   Absolute  Being  or  Self. 


32  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

Outside  of  this  all-comprehendiug  Being,  we  never  can  be  and 
be  anything.  He  who  feels  this,  not  as  an  empty,  shallow, 
unenlightened,  noisy  religious  enthusiasm,  but  is  forced  to  it 
by  a  philosophical  necessity  of  thought,  will  be  conscious  of  a 
power  that  partakes  of  the  tranquil  omnipotence  of  God.  It 
is  a  power  which  cannot  otherwise  be  attained.  It  is  an  im- 
movable fulcrum,  more  stable  than  the  everlasting  hills,  on 
which  the  lever  of  faith  may  rest.  Such  a  person  will  un- 
derstand as  never  before  the  words  of  the  risen  Jesus,  and 
the  feeling  which  they  express  when  he  afHrms  that  all  power 
in  the  heavens  and  the  earth  was  given  unto  him.  (Matt, 
xxviii  :  18.)  Having  attained  to  the  idea  and  feeling  of  one- 
ness with  God,  being  borne  up  to  it  by  a  logical  and  philo- 
sophical necessity,  we  do  not  approach  disease  in  ourselves 
or  others,  with  a  curative  intention,  in  our  solitary-,  inflated, 
but  really  empty  selfhood :  but  as  our  individual  self  plus  the 
Godhead,  and  the  whole  power  and  life  of  nature. 

When  we  act  from  the  external  plane  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing, as  we  do  in  our  ordinar}'  life  in  the  world,  our  spiritual 
and  psychological  power  is  at  its  minimum.  "When  in  fav- 
ored moments,  which  by  habit  and  culture  might  become 
more  frequent  and  prolonged,  we  retire  inward  by  an  intro- 
version of  the  mind,  we  climb  to  a  summit  of  our  being 
where  we  act  as  one  with  God,  and  all  below  us  in  the  scale 
of  life  is  subject  more  or  less  to  our  influence.  In  propor- 
tion as  we  act  from  the  inmost  degree  or  realm  of  our  exist- 
ence, we  become  possessed  of  a  divine  and  miraculous 
energy,  meaning  bj'  a  miracle  the  control  of  matter  b}'  spirit. 
In  harmony  with  this  idea  Paul  affirms,  "  I  can  do  all  things 
in  Him  who  strengtheneth  me."  (Phil,  iv  :  13.)  There  is  a 
profound  philosophy,  or  rather  theosophy,  in  this  passage. 
In  man  and  in  the  wonderful  powers  of  the  mind  we  see  the 
highest  exhibition  of  the  Godhead.  To  sa}'  that  man  is  a 
part  of  God  does  not  express  the  exact  truth,  nor  the 
highest  verity.     He  is  rather  a  vianifestation  of  God,  who 


THE    PRIMITIVE    laND-CURE.  33 

is  not  divisible  into  fragments  or  fractions,  but  is  an  indis- 
soluble unity  and  whole.  Saj's  Carlyle,  who  was  imbued 
with  the  philosophy  of  Fichte,  "To  the  eye  of  vulgar 
logic,  what  is  man?  An  omnivorous  biped  that  wears 
breeches.  To  the  eye  of  pure  reason  what  is  he?  A  soul,  a 
spirit,  a  divine  apparition.  Well  said  Chrysostom,  with  his 
lips  of  gold,  '  the  true  Shekinah  is  man.'  Where  else  is  the 
GocVs- Presence  manifested,  not  to  our  eyes  only,  but  to  our 
hearts,  as  in  our  fellow-man?"  (Sartor  Eesartus,  pp.  C3, 
64.) 

To  act  in  and  from  God,  and  thus  possess  a  power  above 
our  ordinary  energy-,  is  to  attain  to  a  deep  conviction  that 
"in  Him  we  live,  and  are  moved,  and  have  our  being,"  in 
other  words  it  is  to  feel  that  our  life  is  included  in  his  Life, 
and  that  his  Being  comprises  ours  in  it.  Till  we  make  this 
discovery,  and  come  to  the  cognition  of  this  eternal  verity, 
we  are  weak  and  spiritually  poor.  Without  it,  the  angels 
would  no  longer  "excel  in  strength."  (Ps.  ciii  :  20.)  A  man 
may  have  a  mine  of  gold  hidden  beneath  the  surface  of  his 
field,  but  is  none  the  richer  for  it  until  he  comes  to  believe 
it  and  know  it.  Then  and  then  only  he  attains  to  a  mental 
appropriation  and  true  possession  of  it.  So  we  may  have  in 
the  manifested  God,  the  Christ,  the  Collective  Man,  wisdom, 
and  righteousness,  and  health  and  blessedness,  but  if  we  are 
blinded  by  our  sensuous  mind  to  this  truth,  it  is  all  the  same 
as  if  we  had  it  not.  The  deepest  reality  in  man  is  spirit, 
and  as  a  spirit  he  is  an  individual,  that  is,  indivisible  (as  the 
word  means)  manifestation  of  the  grand  unity  of  spirit 
which  is  God.  Even  his  body,  when  we  take  a  more  pene- 
trating look  at  it,  is  a  symbol  of  spirit,  and  not  wholly 
material.  It  is  a  complex  of  spiritual  forces,  a  combination 
of  ideas  and  sensations,  without  which  it  is  to  us  as  nothing, 
and  which  are  wholly  included  in  the  life  of  the  soul.  There 
is  a  region  of  thought  where  we  translate  matter  itself  into 
spirit.      "Matter,"  says   Carlyle,   following    the    steps   of 


34.  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

Fichte,  "were  it  never  so  despicable,  is  spirit,  the  mauifes- 
tation  of  spirit ;  were  it  never  so  honorable,  can  it  be  more  ?  " 
{Sartor  Besartus,  p.  65.) 

In  our  spirit,  in  the  inmost  centre  of  our  conscious  exist- 
ence, human  life,  as  I  have  before  said,  and  here  again 
earnestly  reaffirm,  merges  into  the  Divine.  Thence  it  is 
that  it  springs.  From  that  point  the  stream  of  life  starts, 
and  thence  forever  proceeds.  But  this  region  of  the  Divine 
Life  in  us,  and  seat  of  the  highest  spiritual  power,  is  not  an 
inaccessible  solitude  that  can  never  be  approached  and  ex- 
plored by  consciousness,  as  if  all  access  to  it  were  forever 
closed  in  this  stage  of  our  existence.  It  sometimes  crops 
out  above  the  surface  of  our  earthly  life.  It  is  only  the 
attainment  of  the  good,  the  to  agathon  of  the  Platonists.  In 
every  inspired  thought,  in  each  flash  of  intuition,  in  every 
good  deed  and  beneficent  act  springing  from  an  inward 
impulse  and  desire,  there  is  a  manifestation  of  it.  The  veil 
of  sense  is  then  suddenly  rent,  in  a  degree,  if  not  from  the 
bottom  to  the  top,  and  the  holy  of  holies  is  laid  open  to 
view.  The  highest  attainable  state  on  earth,  according  to 
Buddhism,  is  called  lloksha,  but  this  is  identical  with  the 
eternal  life  of  the  Gospels,  and  so  rendered  by  Max  Miiller. 
This  is  not  unattainable,  nor  difficult  of  attainment.  Jesus 
has  made  the  way  easy.  He  who  believeth  on  the  So7i  (or 
Spirit)  hath  everlasting  life.  (John  iii  :  16.)  If  we  had 
sought  it  with  a  hundredth  part  of  the  earnestness  that  men 
seek  wealth,  we  should  long  ago  have  found  it.  That 
"eternal  life"  that  was  with  the  Father  has  been  mani- 
fested unto  us.  (I  John  i :  2.)  We  seek  it  too  far  off,  as 
something  in  a  foreign  land,  but  it  is  already  in  us,  and  we 
are  in  it.  We  are  like  a  man  hunting  round  the  world  to 
find  the  atmosphere,  not  realizing,  because  it  is  unseen,  that 
•-t  pervades  and  contains  us.  AVhcn  I  have  discovered  lU}-- 
eiclf,  I  have  found  it.     I  am  it. 

To  act  from  a  spiritual  intelligence,  and  to  be  moved  by  an 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE.  35 

unselfish  love,  is  to  act  from  the  Divine.  He  who  lovetli  is 
born  of  God,  and  dwclleth  in  God,  and  God  in  him. 
(I  John  iv  :  7,  16.)  When  we  approach  a  patient  to  cure 
him  of  his  malady,  if  we  are  actuated  by  a  good  motive  and 
benevolent  intention  we  are  moved  by  him ;  and  if  his 
recovery  is  agreeable  to  the  divine  will,  and  thus  comes 
within  the  category  of  things  possible,  we  are  acting  in  con- 
cert with  God,  and  all  his  power  is  ours.  Our  Emerson  has 
well  said :  "  Whilst  a  man  seeks  good  ends,  he  is  strong  by 
the  whole  streugth  of  nature.  In  so  far  as  he  roves  from 
these  ends,  he  bereaves  himself  of  power,  of  auxiliaries  ;  his 
being  shrinks  out  of  all  remote  channels,  he  becomes  less 
and  less,  a  mote,  a  point,  until  absolute  badness  is  absolute 
death."     (Nature:  Addresses  and  Lectures,  p.  120.) 

I  have  said  that  it  is  a  principle  of  Christianity-,  and  of  all 
spiritual  religions,  that  our  true  self  is  included  in  the  being 
of  God.  By  this  I  do  not  refer  to  the  "Unknown,"  the 
Aditi,  pure  infinitude,  the  En-Soph  of  the  Kabala,  but  to 
the  manifested  God,  the  Chi-ist  of  Paul.  Not  the  Christ  of 
the  popular  theology,  where  the  idea  shrinks  and  dwindles 
down  to  an  isolated  personality,  but  to  a  larger,  fuller, 
diviner  Christ,  an  eternal,  an  all-pervading,  all-containing, 
and  universal  Christ.  This  is  the  universal  Spirit,  the  first 
emanation  from  the  Father,  whom  no  man  kiioweth,  and 
who  is  beyond  the  reach  of  thought.  This  Christ  is  inclu- 
sive of  all  spiritual  intelligence,  and  of  all  spiritual  beings. 
Neither  the  Jesus  nor  the  Christ  of  Paul  is  a  solitary  per- 
son in  the  common  acceptation  of  the  word,  but  something 
more.  They  are  symbols  of  principles  and  states  that  are  iu 
us,  and  in  all  spirits.  This  Swedenborg  plainly  teaches. 
He  says  :  "  That  the  deepest  mysteries  lie  concealed  in  the 
internal  sense  of  the  Word,  may  most  manifestly  appear 
from  the  internal  sense  of  the  two  names  of  our  Lord,  Jesus 
Christ.  When  these  names  are  pronounced,  few  have  any 
other  idea  than  that  they  are  proper  names,  and  almost  like 


,S6  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

the  names  of  another  man,  but  more  holy ;  the  leaiued 
indeed  know,  that  Jesus  signifies  Saviour,  and  Christ  the 
Anointed,  and  hence  they  conceive  some  more  interior  mean- 
ing ;  still  this  is  not  what  the  angels  in  heaven  perceive  from 
these  names,  their  perception  extending  to  things  still  more 
divine  ;  for,  by  Jesus,  when  the  name  is  pronounced,  they 
understand  the  divine  Good,  and  by  Clirist,  the  divine 
Truth,  and  by  both  the  union  of  good  and  truth."  (Arcana 
Celestia,  3004.) 

The  word  Christ  in  its  etymology  is  closely  related  to 
the  Sanscrit  Kris,  the  good,  the  holy,  and  to  the  Greek 
Chrestos,  the  principle  of  good,  identical  with  Plato's  to 
agatJion,  the  Supreme  Goodness,  who  created  the  world  in 
himself.     This  idea  answers  to  the  Christ  of  Paul. 

The  Universal  Spirit  and  all-pervading  Divine  Presence, 
and  the  inmost  life  of  all  that  is,  haf,  as  one  of  its  distin- 
guishing characteristics,  inherent  in  its  essence  and  nature, 
an  irrepressible  tendency  to  impart^  to  extend  the  sphere  of 
its  healing,  soul-saving  influence.  Our  proper  attitude 
toward  it  is  one  of  tranquil  desire,  passive  receptivity,  unre- 
sisting willingness,  and  serene  trust.  The  lower  soul  should 
be  held  open  toward  it,  with  a  suspension  of  its  activity,  and 
by  the  absorptive  power  of  the  soul  to  imbibe  its  life.  We 
are  not  to  dictate,  but  to  receive.  In  the  Apocalypse,  the 
living  Christ,  the  only  saving,  healing  principle  in  the 
universe,  is  represented  as  saying,  "Behold,  I  stand  at  the 
door  and  knock :  if  any  man  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in 
to  him."  (Rev.  iii  :  20.)  But  it  is  not  on  the  outside  door 
of  men's  souls  that  he  knocks  for  admittance,  as  if  he  were 
external  to  us.  The  Chi'ist  is  already  within  us  (Col.  i :  27), 
and  he  seeks  to  pass  outward  into  the  soul  and  its  body,  and 
permeate  these  with  a  higher  life.  He  knocks  on  the  inner 
door,  that  opens  inward  toward  God  and  the  kingdom  of  the 
hefivens  ;  which,  if  we  do  not  bar  against  his  egress,  he  will 
open  and  pass  outward,  and  become  the  Saviour  (or  healer)  ul' 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUBE.  37 

the  body  (Eph.  v  :  23),  and  of  others  through  us.  In  praying 
to  the  Christ  to  save  us,  we  are  not  merely  to  invoke  the 
Christ  or  call  upon  him  to  come  in,  but  to  evoke  the  Christ, 
who  is  already  in  the  hidden  depths  and  centre  of  our  being. 
Even  Jesus  is  in  the  true  disciple.  (John  xvii :  23.)  He,  as 
the  highest  individual  expression  of  the  universal  Christ- 
principle,  is  there  as  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,  and  we 
are  to  call  him  forth  from  the  innermost  recess  of  the  mind 
into  the  outer  chamber,  and  even  the  external  courts  of  our 
existence.  We  look  for  the  Christ  as  our  Saviour,  or  healer, 
in  the  wrong  direction,  as  if  he  were  far  off  and  an  absent  and 
distant  being,  instead  of  something  already  in  the  inmost 
divine  realm  of  our  being.  But  the  righteousness  (or  right 
thinking)  of  faith  saith  thus:  "Say  not  in  thy  heart,  Who 
shall  ascend  into  heaven  (that  is,  to  bring  the  Christ  down)  ? 
or,  Who  shall  descend  into  the  abyss  (that  is,  to  bring  the 
Christ  up  from  the  dead)  ?  But  what  saith  it?  The  word  is 
nigh  thee,  jn  thy  mouth  and  in  thy  heart;  that  is,  the  word 
of  faith  which  we  proclaim."     (Rom.  x  :  6-8.) 

The  connection  of  our  inner  self  with  the  Supreme  Self, 
and  the  way  in  which  our  spirit  is  included  in  the  Universal 
Spu-it,  or  the  Christ,  may  be  faintly  illustrated  by  a  tree,  as, 
for  example,  the  sacred  Banyan,  which  we  will  make  repre- 
sentative of  the  Kabalistic  "  tree  of  life."  In  this  tree  of 
India,  the  branches  bending  to  the  ground  take  root  and 
form  new  stocks,  till  they  cover  many  Imndred  feet  in  circum- 
ference. But  still  it  is  all  one  tree,  and  in  the  Hindu  sym- 
bology  is  called  "  the  tree  of  knowledge"  and  "  the  tree  of 
life,"  and  under  its  grateful  shade  the  Gurus  (instructors) 
teach  their  pupils  the  mysteries  of  immortality.  Every  tree 
is  a  whole  made  up  of  innumerable  parts,  each  of  which  is  a 
likeness  of  the  whole.  I  think  it  was  the  German  poet 
Goethe  who  first  suggested  that  the  leaf  is  a  typical  form, 
and  that  every  leaf  and  every  bud  is,  as  it  were,  a  tree  of 
itself.     This  doctrine  is  now   universally   adopted    in    the 


88  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

science  of  botany.  Besides  the  visible  buds  and  leaves, 
each  of  which  is  an  ideal  tree,  there  are  a  countless  number 
of  latent  buds  that  are  ready  to  start  into  life  under  the 
proper  conditions.  Through  each  leaf-form  the  life  of  the 
whole  circulates,  and  each  leaf  when  sundered  from  the  tree 
withers  and  dies.  "We  as  individual  spirits  sustain  the  same 
relation  to  the  Christ.  (John  xv :  1-8.)  We  are  included 
in  him,  and  he  abides  in  us.  As  each  leaf  is  an  image  and 
representative  of  the  whole  tree,  and  possesses  the  qualities 
and  specific  virtues  of  the  tree,  and  as  each  drop  of  the  ocean 
has  in  itself  the  properties  of  the  great  deep,  so  that  if  the 
ocean  be  salt  each  drop  may  predicate  saltness  of  itself,  so 
our  true  self  sustains  the  same  relation  to  the  Christ.  If  the 
universal  spirit  is  free  from  disease  and  evil,  and  is  alwa3's 
well  and  tranquilly  happy,  we  may  affirm  the  same  of  our 
true  self,  which  is  included  in  it.  This  is  a  doctrine  of  both 
Jesus  and  Paul  (John  xvi :  33  ;  I  Cor.  1  :  30) ,  and  also  of 
pre-Vedic  Buddhism ;  and,  because  of  its  great  practical 
importance,  we  shall  further  discuss  it  in  our  next  lesson. 


THE   PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUBE.  89 


CHAPTER  V. 

HAPPINESS  AND  HEALTH,  AND  WHERE  THEY  ARE  TO  BE  FOUND. 

Blessedness  and  health  are  so  closely  related  that  they 
may  be  viewed  as  identical  and  inseparable.  Disease  has 
its  si^iritual  counterpart  in  some  mental  unhappiness,  some 
inharmony  of  the  inner  nature,  some  spiritual  wretchedness, 
which  ultimates  itself  in  the  body.  For  this  antecedent 
mental  disturbance  we  must  first  find  a  remedy,  or  the  cure 
of  the  body  is  impossible  ;  or,  if  it  were  possible,  is  of  trifling 
value.  To  learn  how  and  where  to  find  true  happiness,  is  to 
discover  the  best  remedy  for  disease. 

To  begin  our  search  for  this  panacea  and  true  elixir  vitce, 
let  it  be  observed  that  all  desirable  mental  conditions  are 
already  in  the  spirit  of  every  man  as  a  possibility ;  or,  as  it 
is  expressed  in  philosophical  language,  in  potentia,  though 
they  may,  for  the  present,  be  beyond  the  region  of  con- 
sciousness or  sensation,  though  they  exist  as  a  fact  in  our 
inner  being,  and  only  wait  recognition.  They  may  be  in  a 
state  of  latency*,  like  the  germ  of  a  j^lant  in  the  seed,  but  are 
capable  of  being  awakened  into  conscious  activit3\  It  has 
been  said  of  the  lotus,  the  sacred  and  expressive  symbol  in 
the  religion  of  the  Hindus  and  the  Egyptians,  that  its  seeds, 
even  before  they  germinate,  contain  perfectly  formed  leaves, 
and  the  miniature  representation  of  the  perfected  plant. 
This  is  an  instance  of  praiformation  or  antecedent  ideal  crea- 
tion, which  has  its  application  to  the  subject  before  us.  All 
the  happy  feelings  and  emotions  that  go  to  make  up  a  state 
of  tranquil  blessedness,  or  spiritual  healthfulncss,  are  already 
iu  us,  and  can  be  aroused  from  their  dormancy  or  quiescence, 


40  THE    TRIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE. 

and  be  made  to  exist  in  acta,  or  in  actual  consciousness. 
Disease  on  its  mental  side  and  in  its  spiritual  essence,  as  the 
word  itself  signifies,  is  a  state  of  dissatisfaction,  an  uneasy, 
disquieted  state  of  the  soul.  Where  shall  we  find  relief? 
Certainly  not  by  looking  outward.  The  true  remedy  does 
not  lie  in  that  direction.  Every  one's  best  teacher,  that  is 
doctor,  is  his  own  inner,  divine  self,  the  sage  or  ancient  of 
days  within.  Let  us  ever  keep  in  mind,  that  all  there  is  or 
can  be  in  what  men  call  heaven,  is  already  in  us,  like  the 
miniature  plantlet  in  the  seed  of  the  sacred  lotus.  It  is 
there  as  a  celestial  germ.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within. 
This  narrows  down  our  search  for  it  into  a  small  compass, 
and  heaven  is  at  hand,  or  within  our  reach.  And  sm-ely 
where  heaven  is,  there  must  be  health  and  happiness.  In 
ordinary  language,  heaven  is  represented  as  above  us,  and 
its  influences  as  descending  upon  us.  This  is  an  illusion  of 
the  natural  or  psychical  man,  a  fallacy  of  the  sensuous  mind. 
In  the  science  of  correspondence,  upward  things  are  interior 
things.  This  is  a  principle  as  fixed  as  the  laws  of  geometry. 
To  view  God  and  heaven  as  above  us,  is  to  separate  them 
from  us.  It  is  a  falsity  as  great  and  fatal  in  religion  as  it 
is  in  mathematics  to  aflarm  that  the  centre  of  a  given  circle 
is  external  to  its  circumference.  God  and  heaven  are  above 
us  only  in  the  sense  of  being  the  inmost  region  of  our  own 
being,  our  inward,  divine  self.  If  not  here,  they  can  exist 
for  us  nowhere.  The  spiritual  man  will  learn  to  explore  the 
depths  of  his  inner  being  in  his  search  for  what  others  vainly 
seek  to  find  in  something  external.  Happiness,  health,  and 
heaven,  which  in  their  essence  are  one,  are  always  within  us, 
and  can  never  by  any  possibility  be  external  to  the  mind. 
To  believe  this,  and  to  know  it,  is  to  find  them.  In  the  New 
Jerusalem,  which  is  heaven  in  man  while  on  earth,  or  a  true 
spiritual  condition  developed  from  within,  it  is  said  there  is 
no  disease,  nor  sorrow,  nor  pain,  nor  death,  "for  the  first 
things  are  passed  away  "  ;  that  is,  the  sensuous  or  external 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  41 

action  of  tbe  mind  has  ceased  to  be  the  governing  power, 
and  the  man  has  emerged  from  the  psychical  into  the  spirit- 
ual life.  From  being  an  animal  sonl  merely,  he  has  become 
a  spirit.  He  has  come  to  himself.  He  has  become  a  son 
of  man  who  is  in  heaven.  (John  iii  :  13.)  He  has  risen 
from  the  life  of  sense,  which  is  only  an  apparent  life,  and  in 
the  New  Testament  is  called  death,  to  the  life  of  the  spirit, 
which  is  the  only  real  and  truly  blessed  life.  Because  mat- 
ter and  sense  are  the  greatest  barriers  between  us  and  the 
world  of  pure  spirit,  it  was  the  aim  of  the  ancient  philoso- 
phers, from  Hermes  Trismcgistus  (the  thrice  great)  down, 
as  it  was  also  of  Pythagoras,  Gautama  the  Buddha,  and 
Jesus  the  Christ,  to  free  the  soul  of  man  from  the  fetters  of 
sense,  and  its  imprisonment  in  the  body,  and  enable  it  to 
begin  on  earth  to  realize  its  Godlike  powers.  For  all  of  the 
soul  that  is  iu  the  body  is  dormant  and  in  a  state  of  lethargy. 
Its  perceptions  are  illusory  and  deceptive. 

How  these  higher  possibilities  of  existence  and  divinei 
mental  conditions,  which  are  inconsistent  with  disease  and 
cannot  coexist  with  it,  may  be  evoked  from  the  unconscious  ' 
region  of  the  mind  into  conscious  activity,  is  the  greatest 
problem  of  philosophy  and  religion.  It  is  a  question  that  out- 
weighs all  others  in  its  importance  in  transcendental  science. 
We  will  give  a  few  hints  towards  its  solution,  just  enough 
to  enable  every  one  to  place  his  feet  in  the  jmth  and  turn  his 
mental  eye  in  the  right  direction.  It  shall  at  least  be  our 
office  to  hold  the  candle  while  each  one  looks  for  himself. 

It  is  of  the  first  importance,  that  we  learn  the  truth  and 
never  lose  sight  of  it,  that  as  health  and  heaven  are  tcithin 
man,  so  all  disturbed  and  depressing  mental  conditions  are 
in  a  region  of  our  being  that  is  relatively  external  to  the 
pneuma  or  inward  divine  spirit,  which  is  our  real  Ego  or  self. 
From  this  external  plane  of  mental  action,  or  of  thought  and 
feeling,  it  is  possible  for  us  to  retreat  inward  into  a  realm  of 
our  being  where  all  is  peace  and  unruffled  serenity. 


42  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

"  Distractions  are  but  outward  tilings. 
Thy  peace  dwells  far  within. 

*'  These  surface  troubles  come  and  go, 
Like  rufflings  of  the  sea ; 
The  deeper  depth  is  out  of  reach 
To  all,  my  God,  but  thee." 

We  live  too  much  on  the  surface  of  our  being  and  have 
not  even  found  ourself,  our  real  life,  which  is  hid  with  Christ 
in  God.  It  is  demonstrated  by  science  that  there  is  a  depth 
of  the  ocean  which  the  most  violent  storms  never  stir. 
Hurricanes  that  sweep  navies  from  the  ocean  do  not  pene- 
trate to  this  undisturbed  realm  of  nature.  This  region  of 
placid  calmness  answers  to  our  true  existence,  and  a  poet 
has  so  used  the  correspondence. 

"  There's  quiet  in  the  deep ; 
Above  let  clouds  and  tempests  rave, 
And  earth-born  wliirlwinds  wake  the  wave ; 
Above  let  fear  and  grief  contend 
With  sin  and  sorrow  to  the  end: 
Here  far  beneath  the  tainted  foam, 
That  frets  above  our  peaceful  home, 
"We  dream  in  joy  and  wake  in  love. 
Nor  know  the  rage  that  yells  above : 

There's  quiet  in  the  deep." 

So  we  may  turn  the  mind  inward  upon  itself  as  far  as 
thought  can  penetrate;  in  other  words,  we  can  change  the 
direction  of  the  mind  from  looking  outward  upon  apparent 
things,  to  a  gaze  inward,  in  the  direction  of  our  real  life  and 
ti-ue  being,  and  the  mental  unhappinrfss,  the  pain,  the  disease 
of  whatever  nature  it  is,  will  be  left  without  the  gate,  sun- 
dered from  our  real  self.  This  region  of  our  being  is  called 
the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High,  the  Inscrutable  Height  of 
the  Kabala,  the  Divine  Internal  of  Swedenborg,  which  is  the 
Christ  of  Paul ;  and  here  our  truly  existing  self  a)»ides  under 
the  shadow  of  the  Ahuightv,  and  is  the  doorway  that  opens 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CtTRE.  43 

into  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead.  It  is  the  portico,  the 
piazza,  and  the  anteroom  of  the  sacred  temple,  our  Father's 
house  with  many  apartments.  Here,  in  finding  ourself,  we 
have  found  God,  and,  in  a  deeper  quietude  than  is  ever  felt 
in  our  lower  nature,  we  dwell 

"  Too  near  to  God  for  doubt  or  fear. 
And  share  the  eternal  calm." 

It  is  the  region  in  us  where  thought  becomes  a  divine  force, 
for  the  individual  spirit  consciously  abides  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Almighty,  or  the  obstructed  and  tempered  light  of  the 
divine  Truth,  adapted  to  the  reception  of  the  finite  intellect. 
The  sacred  lamp  is  only  shaded  by  partially  transparent 
glass.  It  is  the  region  in  us  of  self-control  in  the  fullest 
sense  of  the  term,  and  the  central  throne  of  the  mind's  do- 
minion over  the  body  and  its  diseases.  It  is  the  realm  of  our 
being  where  dwells  the  light  of  a  higher  Wisdom,  the  inward 
Christ  and  Son  of  God,  whom  Paul  found  in  himself.  As 
one  has  said,  "  There  is  guidance  for  each  of  us,  and  by  low 
listening  we  shall  hear  the  right  word." 

"There  syllabled  in  silence,  let  me  hear 
The  still  small  voice  that  reached  the  prophet's  ear. 
Read  in  my  heart  a  still  diviner  law, 
Than  Israel's  leader  on  his  tables  saw." 

In  the  home  of  the  still  small  voice,  the  prayer  of  faith  be- 
comes a  saving  power  issuing  from  the  centre  of  life.  It  lies 
within  the  compass  of  our  powers  thus  to  retreat  inward  from 
disease  and  our  surface  troubles,  as  certainly  as  it  does  to 
fly  to  our  sheltering  house  from  the  wintry  storm  without ; 
and  practice  will  make  it  easy  and  repetition  a  habit. 

Things  that  make  us  unhappy,  and  which  we  call  evil,  are 
not  so  real  as  they  seem ;  but  the}'  are  shadows  that  are 
magnified  out  of  all  due  proportion.  In  the  Platonic  doctrine 
of  creation,  the  Supreme  Goodness  is  that  from  which  all 
things  proceed,  and  is  that  which  contains  in  itself  all  exist- 


44  THE    PRIMITIVE    jnND-CURE. 

ing  things.  This,  of  course,  cannot  include  anything  that 
is  evil.  Good  is  positive  and  real ;  evil  is  the  absence  of 
good,  and,  consequently,  has  no  real  existence,  only  a  seem- 
ing existence.  It  is  that  which  is  good  inverted,  or  seen 
with  the  empty  side  uppermost.  All  things,  or,  as  Plato 
would  say,  all  truly  existing  things,  are  from  or  out  of  God 
(I  Cor,  xi :  12),  and  what  is  from  Him  is  and  must  be  good. 
If  then  we  view  disease  as  an  evU,  we  are  forced  to  the  con- 
clusion that  it  is  no-thing.  It  is  emptiness,  vacuit}',  the 
absence  of  true  being,  and  has  only  an  apparent  existence,  a 
false  and  fallacious  wa}'  of  thinking  which  belongs  to  the 
lower  animal  soul.  Yet  nothing  seems  more  real  to  the 
world  at  large.  And  so  does  a  shadow  to  a  child,  who  sees 
it  on  the  wall,  and  attempts  to  pick  it  off.  The  sources  of 
our  unhappiuess  are  always  some  false  way  of  thinking. 
Truth  is  that  which  is,  and  falsity  expresses  what  is  not. 
Falsity  and  non-existence  are  the  same,  as  when  I  assert  that 
the  angles  of  a  triangle  are  in  their  sum  either  more  or  loss 
than  two  right  angles,  I  affirm  what  has  no  existence.  Now 
if  it  can  be  made  to  appear  that  all  disease  and  the  sources 
of  our  unhappiness  are  illusions  or  a  false  seeming,  and 
hence  must  count  as  nothing,  it  will  afford  us  a  secure  stand- 
ing-ground for  a  saving  and  healing  faith.  To  assist  us  in 
climbing  up  to  this  exalted  summit  of  thought  will  be  the 
object  of  our  next  lesson.  It  is  of  the  first  importance  that 
we  learn  to  form  the  true  idea  of  ourselves,  and  of  others  whom 
we  would  aid  into  the  wa}"  of  true  healing.  To  form  only 
an  intellectual  conception  of  a  state,  is  an  incipient  creation 
of  it,  for  certainly  the  idea  is  in  us,  and  is  a  part  of  us.  It 
may  be  at  first  only  intellectual ;  but,  between  intellect  and 
feeling,  as  we  have  before  said,  there  is  a  law  of  attraction 
as  between  male  and  female,  and  the  feeling  conjoined  to  the 
intellectual  conception  makes  it  a  thing  of  life,  a  divine 
reality.  To  aid  us  in  this  true  conception  of  man,  we  may 
look  to  Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith.     (Ilcb. 


THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUnE.  4  b 

xii :  2.)  In  him,  as  an  incarnation  of  tlie  universal  Christ, 
we  find  the  point  where  humanity  in  general  rises  intodiviuit}-, 
tlic  point  where  the  highest  heavens  meet  the  earth,  and  blend 
their  higlier  life  and  light  with  our  lower  plane  of  existence. 
If  we  look  to  Jesus  as  the  divine  model  of  the  true  idea  of 
man,  we  shall  find  his  humanity  the  needle  of  a  celestial 
C(vai[)ass  that  always  points  due  East,  toward  God  and  heav- 
enly blessedness.  And  as  representing  and  including  us,  we 
may  confidently  ask  in  his  name,  and  receive  that  our  joy 
may  be  full.      (John  xvi :  24.) 

There  is  a  region  of  mental  exaltation,  or,  if  you  please, 
of  inspiration,  where  the  emptiness  and  nothingness  of  what 
we  call  evil,  and  which  is  the  source  of  our  unhappinc.<:s, 
clearl}'  appears.  Emerson,  who  combined  in  himself  both 
the  poet  and  the  philosopher,  undoubtedly  reached  that 
higher  altitude  of  thought  when  he  wrote  :  "  Good  is  positive. 
Evil  is  merely  privative,  not  absolute  ;  it  is  like  cold,  which  is 
the  privation  of  heat.  All  evil  is  so  much  death  or  nonen- 
tity." Again  he  says:  "I  think  that  only  is  real  which 
men  love  and  rejoice  in ;  not  what  they  tolerate,  but  what 
they  choose  ;  what  the}'  embrace  and  aA'^ow,  and  not  the 
things  which  chill,  benumb,  and  terrify  them."  (Nature: 
Addresses  and  Lectures,  pp.  120,  256.) 

This  higher  altitude  of  thought,  where  the  evil  and  the 
false  shrink  into  nihility,  does  not  appertain  to  the  animal 
soul,  but  belongs  to  that  higher  range  of  the  mind,  that  is  on 
a  level  with  the  Logos,  the  spiritual  intelligence  which  is  the 
New  Testament  faith.  We  need  an  Abrahamic  faith,  before 
which  the  visible  to  sense  disappears,  and  the  "  invisible 
appears  in  sight"  to  the  spirit,  and  eternal  realities  are  dis- 
closed to  the  immortal  eye,  of  which  the  outward  organ  is 
the  veil.  Abraham  represents  the  principle  of  faith  when  it 
rises  into  intuition,  its  highest  form.  He  believed  in  God  for 
what  was  scientifically  and  physiologically  impossible,  and 
adhered  to  it  with  divine  obstinacy,  until  the  thing  promised 


46  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIXD-CUUE. 

became  not  only  a  possibility  but  an  actuality.  lie  believed 
in  God  who  quickeneth  the  dead,  and  calleth  the  things  that 
are  not  as  though  they  were.  (Rom.  iv:17.)  AVe  must 
believe  in  the  same  divine  principle,  which  is  the  Logos  or 
inward  Word  in  us,  before  which  the  things  that  have  no 
existence  to  the  animal  soul  and  sense  appear  as  the  only 
realities.  For  faith  is  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen.  If  it 
is  not  this  it  is  only  opinion. 

I  CLIMB   TO   EEST. 

Still  must  I  climb  if  I  would  rest : 
The  bird  soars  upward  to  his  nest ; 
The  young  leaf  on  the  tree-top  high 
Cradles  itself  within  the  sky. 

The  streams,  that  seem  to  hasten  down, 
Return  in  clouds,  the  hills  to  crown ; 
The  plant  arises  from  her  root 
To  rock  aloft  her  flower  and  fruit. 

I  cannot  in  the  valley  stay ; 
The  great  horizons  stretch  away ! 
The  very  cliils  that  wall  me  round 
Are  ladders  into  higher  ground. 

To  work  —  to  rest  —  for  each  a  time; 
I  toil,  but  I  must  also  climb. 
What  soul  was  ever  quite  at  ease 
Shut  in  by  earthly  boundaries  1 

I  am  not  glad  till  I  have  known 
Life  that  can  lift  me  from  my  own ; 
A  loftier  level  must  be  won, 
A  mightier  strength  to  lean  upon. 

And  heaven  draws  near  as  I  ascend ; 
The  breeze  invites,  the  stars  l)efriend, 
All  things  are  beckoning  to  the  Best ; 
I  climb  to  thee,  my  God,  for  rest ! 

(Lucy  Larcom.) 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  47 


CHAPTER    fl. 

FHE  REAL  AND  THE  APPARENT  IN  THOUGHT,  OR  THE  IMPOS- 
SIBLE AND  CONTRADICTOIIY  TO  SENSE  IS  TRUE  TO  THE 
SPIRIT. 

The  source  of  all  I'eal  truth  is  that  divine  realm  of  being 
which  we  call  spirit.  But  truth  in  descending  (or  passing 
outward)  to  the  plane  of  the  animal  soul  is  inverted.  This 
finds  its  analogy  in  the  transmission  of  light  through  an  inter- 
mediate lens,  as  in  the  camera  of  the  artist,  where  on  the 
negative  plate,  which  may  represent  the  lower  soul,  the 
image  is  fully  inverted,  the  bottom  appearing  at  the  top  and 
the  right  side  on  the  left.  Thus  it  is  in  the  descent  of  truth 
through  the  three  degrees  of  our  being.  A  glance  at  our 
diagram  representing  the  triune  constitution  of  man  will 
make  the  analogy  clearer.  This  doctrine  that  our  sense- 
perceptions  are  an  inversion  of  the  real  truth,  and  in  spirit- 
ual things  our  senses  are  never  to  be  believed,  is  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  and  Paul,  and  Plato,  and  is  fundamental  in  the 
life  of  faith.  When  once  established  and  fixed  in  our 
consciousness,  it  is  a  truth  of  momentous  practical  and  saving 
value. 

It  was  the  aim  of  Jesus  to  raise  his  disciples  or  scholars 
above  the  range  of  the  sensuous  mind  to  the  perception  of 
real  truth.  His  fundamental  precept  was  of  far  reaching 
importance  to  the  man  who  would  attain  a  truly  spiritual 
life.  It  was  (and  still  is)  "Judge  not  according  to  appear- 
ance (o'l/ris,  external  sight,  sense),  but  judge  righteous  judg- 
ment." (John  vii :  24.)  This  righteous  judgment  or  recti- 
tude ofthiriking  is  the  Kabalistic  justice,  and  the  Sanscrit 


48  THE    PRIinTIVE    MrND-CURE. 

rita,  real  truth,  and  is  identical  with  Paul's  "righteousness 
of  faith."  For  faith  is  the  elevation  of  the  mind  above  the 
plane  of  sense.  "We  wallt  by  faith,  not  by  sight"  {uihis, 
appearance,  sense)  is  the  maxim  of  Paul  (II  Cor.  v  :  7) . 
The  words  of  Jesus  above  quoted  furnish  the  key  to  a  truly 
spiritual  knowledge.  All  our  sense  perceptions  are  falla- 
cious, and  are  to  be  corrected  before  they  are  accepted. 
The}-  never  give  us  the  real  truth.  This  was  a  doctrine  of 
the  Hermetic  pliilosophy.  On  this  subject  Swedenborg  says  : 
"  Sensual  things,  and  those  which  by  their  means  enter 
immediately  into  thought  are  fallacious,  and  all  fallacies 
which  prevail  with  men  are  from  this  source.  Hence  it 
happens  that  few  believe  the  truths  of  faith,  and  that  the 
natural  man  is  opposed  to  the  spiritual,  that  is,  the  external 
man  to  the  internal."  (Arcana  Celestia,  5084.)  All  the 
profoundcst  truths,  or  truths  of  the  spirit,  are  contradictionSj 
that  is,  they  are  the  direct  opposites  of  the  first  appearances^ 
the  illusions,  the  fallacies  of  the  psychical  man.  Whatever 
the  natural  man,  speaking  from  the  plane  of  sense,  affirms, 
we  are  to  interpret  it  b}'  opposites,  and  we  get  the  real  truth, 
just  as  darkness  makes  the  hidden  light  of  the  stars  visible, 
and  shows  us  worlds  we  never  saw  by  day.  In  order  to  aid 
us  to  rise  from  sense  to  faith,  it  will  be  well  to  demonstrate 
that  all  our  sense  perceptions  are  an  illusion  or  false  seeming. 
Hence,  in  judging  rightly,  they  are  to  be  contradicted,  and 
their  testimony  ruled  out. 

To  begin  with,  it  is  a  fundamental  illusion  that  we  are  in 
time  and  space,  for  the  direct  opposite  is  true  ;  that  is,  time 
and  space  are  in  us  as  modes  of  thought  and  feeling,  or 
subjective  forms  of  sensation,  as  Kant  demonstrated.  Time 
is  the  succession  of  ideas  in  our  minds,  and  motion  in  space 
is  a  change  of  feeling.  In  common  language,  when  our 
feelings  are  stirred  we  are  said  to  be  moved.  Hence  dis- 
tance, as  it  belongs  to  time  and  space,  is  not  an  external 
entity,  or  something  outside  of  us,  but  is  in  us  as  a  state  of 
the  soul. 


THE   PKIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  49 

When  the  scriptures  speak  of  upward  things  or  things 
above,  as  God  and  heaven,  mountains  and  hills,  etc.,  the}' 
really  mean  inward  things.  To  ascend  into  the  hill  of  the 
Lord,  and  stand  in  the  holy  place  (Ps.  xxiv :  3),  is  to  think 
from  the  inner  realm  of  consciousness.  The  Most  High 
is  the  Divine  Inmost  in  man.  The  power  of  the  Highest 
comes  upon  us  when  the  inmost  divine  spirit  in  us  is  devel- 
oped into  conscious  activity  (Luke  i  :  35).  To  be  en- 
dued with  power  from  on  high  (Luke  xxiv  :  49)  has  a 
similar  significance.  When  the  primordial  point,  or  Central 
Life,  is  placed  above  us,  to  go  upward  is  to  go  inward 
towards  the  centre. 

All  outward  things  are  in  reality  inward  things.  The 
objective  is  the  subjective.  All  the  properties  of  matter  are 
only  sensations  and  ideas  in  our  minds.  The  world  is  not 
external  only  as  a  sensuous  seeming,  as  3Iaia  or  illusion.  It 
is  a  mental  picture.  On  this  subject,  Schopenhauer  in  "  Die 
Welt  als  Wille  und  Vorstellung,"  says:  "The  world  is  my 
presentation  or  mental  picture  —  is  what  I  represent  it  to 
be  ;  it  agrees  exactly  with  my  thought ;  it  is  my  thought. 
The  world  exists  for  me  only  as  a  picture  and  a  belief  exist- 
ent in  mj'  mind,  only  so  far  as  it  is  portrayed  by  my  thought 
and  present  to  my  consciousness.  He  prefers,  says  Prof. 
Bowen,  to  call  it  as  Kant  did,  a  Presentation,  a  Vorstelliing, 
or  placing  before  my  mind  of  certain  phenomena  or  appear- 
ances. It  is  impossible  and  even  inconceivable,  that  it 
should  be  known  to  be  anything  else  than  it  appears  to  be. 
Make  this  mental  picture  as  vivid  or  life-like  as  you  please, 
it  is  still  only  a  mental  picture.  Whatever  the  ignorant  may 
fancy,  or  the  superstitious  may  dream,  nothing  is  known  to 
be  behind  it.  It  is  only  an  appearance  or  presentation.  He 
only  is  a  philosopher,  says  Schopenhauer,  to  whom  this  is 
distinct  and  certain.  {Bowen' s  Modern  Philosophfj,  p.  394.) 
All  this  is  true  of  the  human  body,  which  is  no  part  of  man, 
but  belongs  to  the  world-picture  and  is  a  part  of  it.     If  man 


50  THE    TRIMITIVE    HnXD-CURE. 

(or  mind)  were  taken  out  of  the  universe,  no  universe  would 
remain,  because  there  would  be  no  proof,  no  manifestation, 
of  an3"thing  outside  of  us,  when  j-ou  take  away  man,  that  is, 
mind.  For  to  that  alone  the  world  is,  and  to  that  alone  can 
it  be  shown.  God  created,  and  still  creates,  the  world 
through  man,  says  Swedenborg,  and  we  may  be  allowed  to 
add,  only  in  man. 

Again.  There  are  no  external  senses,  whatever  the 
psyclucal,  natural,  or  souUsh  man  may  believe  and  affirm, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  there  is,  and  can  be,  no  external 
perception.  There  are  no  external  sounds,  for  sound  is  a 
sensation,  and  that  exists  only  in  mind.  If  the  music  is  not 
in  us,  it  is  nowhere.  Light  and  color,  which  is  a  modification 
of  light,  are  not  outside  of  me,  but  are  in  me.  I  am  the 
light.  Light  belongs  only  to  mind  and  is  a  modification  of 
mind.  "God  is  light,"  says  John  (I  Jno.  i:  5),  and  the 
converse  of  this  is  true,  the  light  is  God,  or  an  emanative 
principle  from  Him,  and  is  not  dependent  upon  the  sun,  nor 
external  eyes. 

Do  we  live  an  individual  and  independent  life?  Is  my  life 
an  isolated  fragment  sundered  from  the  One  Life  ?  Or  is  it 
not  rather  true,  as  Paul  affirms,  "  In  Him  we  live,  and  are 
moved,  and  have  our  being  "  ?  Then  it  is  no  more  I  that  live, 
but  the  Christ,  the  Logos,  the  inward  Word,  liveth  in  me. 
That  is,  God  only  lives.  He  is  the  living  One,  the  El  Chai. 
We  are  taken  on  board  the  Universal  Life,  and  can  never  get 
outside  of  it.  So  God  only  sees,  as  Swedenborg  sublimely 
asserts  in  his  comments  on  Gen.  xvi  :  13.  The  external 
sees  from  something  interior,  and  this  from  the  inmost,  and 
this  last  from  the  Lord.  Hence  we  may  say,  "  Thou  God 
seest  me,"  and  I  see  only  in  thee,  —  as  was  taught  in  the 
philosophy  of  Malebranche,  and  which  was  borrowed  from 
the  Arabian  Al  Ghazzali,  and  he  borrowed  it  from  the 
Hindu  metaphysics. 

Again,  let  us  ask  the  natural  man,  who  cannot  discern  tha 


TnE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  51 

things  of  the  spirit,  and  to  whom  they  are  foolishness,  Are 
the  senses  in  our  individual  soul,  or  are  they  not  rather  in- 
cluded in  a  universal  sense,  so  that  we  are  in  the  senses?  To 
be  out  of  this  universal  sense  is  to  be  u-rational  and  insensi- 
bk.  All  this  will  seem  to  the  j^sychical  man,  as  contradio 
tory,  and  impossible,  and  is  therefore  spiritually  and  sublimely 
true.  There  is  a  universal  principle  of  sense,  a  Divine  Scm- 
sorium,  as  Sir  Isaac  Newton  calls  it,  which  is  everywhere 
present,  and  our  individual  sense  is  not  disjoined  or  sundered 
from  it,  nor  can  our  senses,  as  Plotinus  affirmed,  ever  be  cut 
off  from  it.  There  is  an  all-seeing  eye,  an  all-hearing  ear, 
an  all-pervading  and  ubiquitous  sense  of  feeling.  True  vision 
is  that  eye  in  me,  and  my  hearing  is  never  outside  the  uni- 
versal ear  or  sense.  For  a  true  universal  is  a  one  thing  that 
is  in  all  things.  We  must  learn  to  see  through  the  all-seeing 
eye,  and  hear  through  the  everywhere-present  ear ;  that  is, 
the  Universal  Divine  Soul,  the  anima  mundi.  Then  tohatever 
any  person  in  any  part  of  the  world  sees,  or  hears,  or  feels,  we 
may  perceive.  This  is  a  great  mystery,  but  is  nevertheless 
demonstrably  true.  We  then  have  sensation  and  perception 
in  the  universal  sense  or  soul. 

Once  more.  Do  we  move,  or  are  we  really  moved?  As  time 
and  space  are  in  us,  as  we  have  shown  above,  and  as  all 
motion  must  be  in  time  and  space,  it  irresistibly  follows, 
that  all  motion  in  its  spiritual  essence  must  be  in  us  as  a 
change  in  our  interiors,  to  use  the  language  of  Swedenborg ; 
or,  in  other  words,  as  a  modification  of  our  thoughts  and 
feelings.  Hence,  motion  in  its  reality  is  independent  of  tlie 
body.  "We  may  be  carried  away  in  spirit  as  Ezekiel  was  to 
the  river  Chebar  (Ezek.  iii :  14,  15),  or  like  John  to  an  ex- 
ceeding high  mountain  (Rev.  xxi :  10),  and  visit  any  part  of 
the  world,  and  not  be  missed  by  our  friends  in  the  same 
room.  All  this  is  absolutely  impossible,  contradictory,  and 
incomprehensible  to  the  psychical  man,  and  hence  must  be 
divinely  true.    It  is  only  what  Paul  asserts,  that  "  in  Ilira  we 


52  THE    PRUnTITE    OTND-CURE. 

live,  and  are  moved,  and  have  our  being."  (Acts  xvii :  28.) 
If  our  life  is  included  in  God's  life,  wherever  He  is  we  may 
and  must  be.  He  shares  with  the  spirit  of  man  in  a  mitigated 
sense  both  his  omnipresence  and  omniscience. 

Again,  it  appears  to  the  psychical  or  soulish  man  that  our 
knowledge  is  self -originated  and  is  our  own.  But  such  a 
person  must  become  a  fool,  as  the  apostle  says,  in  order  that 
he  ma}'  be  wise.  (I  Cor.  iii :  18.)  Do  we  know,  or  are  we 
known  ;  that  is,  is  our  cognition  active,  or  are  we  passive  in 
knowing?  Is  not  our  knowledge  shown  to  us?  One  thing  is 
certain,  that  we  know  nothing  that  is  not  already  known,  and 
which  exists  in  the  Universal  Mind  or  Intellect,  with  which  our 
intellect  is  conjoined.  Paul,  one  of  the  profouudest  of  Chris- 
tian philosophers,  says:  "Now  we  know  in  part,  and  we 
prophesy  in  pai"t,  but  when  that  which  is  perfect  is  come  (or 
the  true  Universal  is  known,  and  we  grasp  the  idea  of  the 
connection  of  our  mind  with  it) ,  then  that  which  is  in  part 
shall  be  done  away."  Then  shall  we  fully  know  even  as  we 
also  are  fully  known  (I  Cor.  xiii :  9-12),  where  he  expresses 
the  thought,  which  it  is  difficult  to  reproduce  in  a  translation, 
that  all  true  and  perfect  knowledge  is  a  passive  reception, 
or  that  we  know  all  things  in  and  through  the  Universal  In- 
tellect, the  Logos  or  Word,  which  illuminates  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world.  The  individual  mind  is  only  a 
mirror,  that  receives  and  reflects,  but  does  not  shine  bj-  its 
own  light.  A  passive  knowing  is  the  highest  form  of  intelli- 
gence. 

It  sounds  like  a  contradiction  to  the  natural  man,  and  is, 
therefore,  true  to  the  spiritual  mind,  that  the  sense  or  mean- 
ing of  the  Bible  and  all  good  books  is  not  in  the  letter  or  the 
external  words,  but  in  us.  The  book  does  not  in  reality  en- 
lighten us  ;  but  we,  as  it  were,  illuminate  it.  The  meaning 
of  words  is  not  in  them,  but  in  us.  Words  are  only  a  sensu- 
ous symbol  of  ideas,  and  ideas  are  only  in  mind,  and  cannot 
by  any  possibility  be  in  Bibl-js  or  books.     The  real  Bible  is 


XnE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  53 

the  inward  Word,  the  Logos,  the  Christ  witliin.  In  this  in- 
ward Christ  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowl- 
edge. (Col.  ii :  3.)  And  John  says  of  "  young  men,"  which 
marks  a  certain  stage  of  spiritual  evolution  or  development, 
"Ye  are  strong,  and  the  word  of  God  abideth  (or  dwelleth) 
in  you."  (I  John  ii :  14.)  And  if  it  is  not  in  us,  either 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  it  is  for  us  nowhere. 

But  all  this  discussion  has  a  practical  side  to  it,  and  is  not 
mere  idle  and  useless  speculation.  We  have  seen  that  the 
knowledge  (so  called)  of  the  psychical  man  or  mind,  is  in- 
verted, and  things  are  seen  bottom  side  up.  We  must  turn 
them  over,  and  contradict  them,  in  order  to  come  to  the 
perception  of  the  real  truth.  The  knowledge  of  the  sensu- 
ous mind  is  only  a  false  seeming,  and  is  never  the  real  truth, 
or  Paul's  righteousness  of  faith,  or  rectitude  of  intellectual 
judgment.  In  common  language  a  man  says,  "  I  am  sick," 
or  in  suffering  or  trouble.  This  is  an  illusion,  as  much  as 
when  he  says  the  sun  rises  and  sets.  His  real  self,  his  spir- 
itual entity,  and  immortal  Ego,  is  not  subject  to  disease,  but 
this  may  always  affirm,  /  am  well  and  happy.  To  come  to 
an  intuitive  perception  of  this,  and  hold  to  it  with  a  divine 
stubbornness,  in  spite  of  the  senses,  and  even  reason,  is  to 
reach  the  summit  of  faith,  —  a  faith  that  makes  us  whole. 
To  the  sensual  man  or  mind, 

"  It  would  seem 
Less  a  thing  to  name  or  own, 
Than  an  echo  overblown 

From  a  dream," 

but  is  nevertheless  an  eternal  reality. 

Finally,  one  of  the  most  impossible  and  unreasonable  con- 
ceptions to  the  psychical  or  soul-man,  and  consequently  one 
of  the  most  sublime  si)iritual  truths  in  the  universe  is,  that 
all  pain  is  a  positive  good  and  pleasure  in  the  region  of  our 
true  being.  It  is  an  inner  divine  good,  struggling  into  a 
birth  in  the  externnl  range  or  sensuous  plane  of  our  exist- 


54  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIITO-CDRE. 

ence.  If  accepted  without  opposition,  and  its  outward  birth 
is  effected,  it  ceases  as  pain,  and  becomes  a  pleasure.  It  is 
then  transmuted  into  a  spiritual  delight.  The  highest  spirit- 
ual development  is  born  of  suffering.  When  we  come  to  a 
clear  recognition  of  this,  and  can  view  the  pain  as  an  inte- 
rior good,  it  is  instantly  alleviated.  Here  the  whole  mj^stery 
of  evil  is  solved.  All  evil  or  pain  is  an  inward,  divine,  spir- 
itual good,  that  struggles  to  ultimate  or  externalize  itself  in 
us,  and  is  opposed  and  obstructed,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, by  the  soul.  But  when,  by  a  supreme  act  of  faith, 
I  can  bring  myself  to  be  willing  to  suffer,  I  then  cease  from 
suffering,  by  one  of  the  deepest  laws  of  my  being. 

If  it  be  true  that  our  spiritual  entity  is  the  real  man,  and 
son  of  God,  and  is,  by  virtue  of  its  divine  and  immortal 
nature,  exempt  from  disease,  then  the  belief  of  disease  is 
but  a  dream,  an  illusion,  a  false  seeming.  Make  it  appear  to 
j^ourself  that  it  is  so,  and  "  thou  art  freed  from  thine  infirm- 
ity." Demonstrate  this  grand  truth  of  faith  clearly  to  a 
patient,  and  he  is  cured.  What  men  call  disease  is  not  dis- 
ease at  all,  but  only  nature's  method  of  curing  it.  It  ici  a 
medicine  and  not  a  disease.  This  is  a  truth  that  is  cayable 
of  an  extended  illustration. 


THE   PBIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  55 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DISEASE   EXISTS   ONLY   IN  THE   MIND   ON  THE   PLANE   OF  SENSE, 
WHICH  IS  THE  REGION  OP  DECEPTIVE  APPEARANCES. 

It  should  be  our  steady  aim  in  all  that  we  do  and  say,  to 
raise  a  patient's  mind  and  our  own  above  the  mere  plane  of 
sense,  with  its  deep-seated  illusions.  The  external  body, 
with  oil  its  diseases,  exists  only  on  that  lower  range  of  thought. 
To  elevate  the  mind  above  the  plane  of  sense  is  to  exalt  our 
conscious  being  into  the  region  of  faith,  where  pain  and 
disease  cannot  exist.  This  is  done  to  some  extent  in  what 
is  called  revery  or  a  waking  dream,  also  in  the  condition  of 
absent-mindedness,  where  the  mind  is  withdrawn  from  exter- 
nal things,  and  we  think  in  ourselves  independent  of  organic 
conditions.  The  first  point  to  be  gained  is  to  know  our 
self;  the  next  to  forget  the  body  and  become  spirit.  The 
natural  or  psychical  man,  or  the  mind  that  habitually  acts  on 
a  level  with  the  body  and  the  senses,  sees  everything  in  an 
inverted  order,  which  is  the  direct  opposite  of  the  real  truth. 
He  does  not  receive  (or  apprehend)  the  things  of  the  spirit, 
nor  can  he  know  them,  for  they  are  spiritually  discerned  or 
judged,  as  Paul  affirms.  What  men  call  knowledge,  derived 
from  the  testimony  of  the  senses,  is  not  knowledge  at  all, 
but  only  error  and  delusion.  When  we  examine  the  matter 
more  closely,  we  are  astonished  to  learn  how  little  we 
know  from  sensation.  When  I  say  I  hear  the  bell  in  the 
church  tower,  it  is  not  strictly  true.  All  that  I  hear  is  a 
sound  which  has  no  meaning  in  and  of  itself,  but  I  have 
learned  by  association  to  connect  that  particular  sound  with 
a  bell.     But  if  I  were  hearing  it  for  the  first  time,  it  would 


56  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

be  impossible  for  me  to  know  what  it  was.  It  is  an  act  of 
judgmeut,  that  is,  a  decision  of  the  mind  on  the  phxne  of 
pnre  intellect,  or  what  is  called  in  the  New  Testament  and 
in  Plato,  faith,  which  teaches  me  that  a  particular  sound  is 
connected  with  a  bell,  or  a  coach  on  the  street,  or  an  engine 
on  the  railroad.  It  is  one  of  the  offices  of  faith,  or  the 
higher  intellect,  to  interpret  the  meaning  of  a  sensation.  If 
we  have  a  sensation  of  discomfort,  we  can  make  it  signify 
disease,  and  this  meaning  it  will  bear  to  us,  or  we  can  give 
it  the  opposite  meaning,  and  it  will  bear  that  signification  to 
us.  This  is  a  practical  principle.  A  wrong  interpretation 
of  our  sensations  is  a  fruitful  source  of  disease. 

All  that  we  ever  see  by  the  sense  of  vision,  as  Berkeley 
proved  long  ago,  is  a  sensation  of  light  and  its  modification 
in  the  various  colors.  Ever3'thing  else  which  we  attribute  to 
vision  is  only  an  act  of  judgment.  Sensation  in  itself 
teaches  us  nothing.  As  long  as  the  mind  is  fettered  by  the 
senses,  true  knowledge,  which  is  only  another  name  for 
faith,  is  impossible.  In  disease  the  senses  give  us  no  real 
knowledge  of  our  true  condition.  We  must  learn  to  dis- 
believe them,  and  hearken  to  the  voice  of  the  higher  wisdom. 
Their  testimony  must  be  ignored,  their  fallacies  rejected, 
and  the  interior  mind  must  assert  its  divine  rights.  A  true 
faith,  which  saves  a  man  body  and  soul,  begins  where  sensa- 
tion ends,  and  is  the  "evidence  of  things  not  seen."  In 
order  for  faith  to  become  a  living  power  to  heal  ourselves  or 
others,  it  must  be  emancipated  from  the  bondage  of  the 
senses.  Their  clamorous  voice  must  be  silenced,  and  their 
testimony  must  be  ruled  out.  This  is  the  true  freedom  from 
matter  that  constitutes  us  spiritual,  and  essentially  and  dis- 
tinctively human.  Things  look  quite  different  to  the  mind, 
when  it  views  them  from  the  spiritual  plane  of  thought  and 
perception  from  wliat  they  do  when  seen  only  through  the 
underground  window  of  the  dungeon  of  the  prison  of  sense. 
To  cure  oursL-lves  of  disease,  and  remain  under  the  blind- 


TUE    TRIMITIVE    MIND-CUUE.  57 

ness  of  the  senses,  is  like  a  sliipwrecked  mariner  trying  to 
keep  afloat  with  a  rock  attached  to  him  instead  of  a  life- 
preserver.  Disease,  having  existence  only  in  the  mind  on 
the  sensuous  plane,  is  so  far  like  all  our  sense-perceptions  a 
fallacious  appearance,  and  not  the  reality  we  suppose  it  to 
be.  The  spiritual  man  will  learn  to  treat  it  as  he  does  all 
otlier  illusions.  But  you  will  ask  me,  if  the  corn  on  your  toe 
is  not  as  real  as  the  toe  itself?  To  this  the  answer  is,  that 
neither  of  them  have  any  real  existence  except  as  a  thought 
on  the  lower  range  of  the  mind,  and  a  false  belief;  and 
neither  of  them  is  any  part  of  the  real  Ego  or  self.  Both  of 
them  could  be  removed  by  surgery  and  the  inner  man  not  be 
mutilated  or  touched.  Nothing  has  been  subtracted  from 
our  true  being.  When  will  the  world  come  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  truth,  that  it  is  the  pneuma  or  spirit,  and  not  the 
body,  that  is  the  man.  In  its  inmost  essence  it  is  divine, 
and,  like  Milton's  angels,  immortal  in  every  part.  It  is 
never  separated  from  God.  The  last  words  of  Gautama, 
when,  under  the  Sdl-tree  or  sycamore,  he  was  entering  into 
Nirvana,  were  :  "  Spirit  is  the  sole,  elementary,  and  primor- 
dial unity,  and  each  of  its  rays  is  immortal,  infinite,  and 
indestructible.  Beware  of  the  illusions  of  matter."  The  spirit 
is  never  separated  from  God.  It  is  like  a  wave  or  ripple  on 
the  ocean  of  being  that  is  never  disjoined  from  the  ocean, 
but  is  one  with  it.  Or,  as  the  divine  Christ  in  Jesus  declares, 
"I  am  the  vine  ;  ye  are  the  branches,  and  apart  from  me, 
ye  can  do  nothing."     (John  xv  :  4,  5.) 

There  is  a  fundamental  error  which  it  is  important  that  we 
correct,  for  it  is  the  parent  of  a  large  class  of  illusions.  I 
refer  to  the  false  belief,  the  illusive  ajppearance  of  the  exist- 
ence of  life  and  sensation,  of  pleasure  and  pain,  of  health 
and  disease,  in  the  material  body.  Even  motion  in  its 
reality  or  on  the  spiritual  side  of  it,  is  not  in  the  body.  It 
is  only  "  a  change  of  state  in  the  interiors,"  as  Swedenborg 
expresses  it.     When  I  raise  my  arm,  the  reality  of  the  move- 


58  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

ment  is  a  modification  of  the  mind.  So  when  we  change 
our  position  from  one  part  of  the  room  to  another,  or  go 
from  Boston  to  New  York,  the  real  movement  is  an  invisible 
change  in  our  mental  condition.  In  our  dreams  we  travel 
through  space,  and  see  objects  in  space  and  time.  But 
where  is  that  space  ?  It  is  most  certainly  in  us,  for  by  the 
closing  of  our  senses  we  are  shut  off  from  the  outer  world. 
The  relation  of  motion  and  locomotion  to  a  modification  of 
the  mind  is  a  principle  that  has  importance  in  connection 
with  the  subject  of  vision  and  action  at  a  distance. 

But  to  return  to  the  subject  of  sensuous  delusions.  There 
is  no  such  thing  possible  as  headache,  or  what  the  patient  calls 
the  head,  for  that  is  never  pained.  Pain  can  no  more  be 
predicated  of  the  head  than  of  the  hat  or  bonnet.  To  come 
to  the  inward  consciousness  and  certainty  of  this,  is  a  great 
step  towards  the  cure  of  it.  Headache  in  its  various  forms 
is  only  some  disturbance,  some  inharmouy  or  unhappiness  in 
the  psychical  or  soal-principle.  But  I  shall  be  asked,  if  the 
head  does  not  ache,  what  is  it  that  aches?  So  the  sun 
appears  to  rise,  but  does  not.  If  you  ask  what  it  is  that 
rises?  the  answer  is,  nothing  rises.  It  is  a  deceptive  appear- 
ance, an  error  that  counts  for  nothing.  So  of  the  headache, 
if  the  head  does  not  ache,  nothing  aches.  It  is  an  illusion, 
a  false  belief  of  what  does  not  and  cannot  exist.  To  in- 
tuitively perceive  this  to  be  true,  is  a  faith  that  makes  us 
whole. 

The  teeth  never  in  reality  ache.  There  has  never  been 
such  a  thing  as  toothache  since  the  creation  of  man.  The 
teeth  were  made  for  the  mastication  of  food,  and  it  is  beyond 
their  function  or  power  to  ache.  Even  Dr.  Carpenter,  in 
his  Principles  of  Human  Physiology,  affirms  that  we  do  not 
speak  in  exact  accordance  with  the  truth  when  we  say  that 
we  feel  a  pain  in  the  hand.  He  would  say  that  it  was  in  the 
sensorium,  which  is  supposed  to  be  located  in  the  brain. 
But  this  is  a  mistake  or  an  illusion  as  much  as  the  rising  and 


TUE    rXUMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  59 

setting  of  the  sun.  Tiie  brain  has  no  more  feeling  than  the 
hair,  a  truth  which  physiology  admits.  Dr.  Carpenter's 
affirmation  amounts  to  saying  that  a  feeling  exists  in  what 
has  no  feeling.  The  sensorium,  or  seat  of  sensation,  is  not 
in  the  body  at  all,  or  in  any  part  of  it.  It  is  a  principle  of 
the  transcendental  philosophy  that  time  and  space  are  not 
external  entities,  but  exist  in  us  as  modes  of  thought,  time 
being  the  succession  of  ideas  in  the  mind,  and  space  the 
distinguisJiing  of  things,  or  the  viewing  of  them  as  distinct 
rather  than  all  at  once.  But  as  both  time  and  space  are  in 
us  as  modes  of  thongJd,  it  follows  that  we  locate  a  pain  by 
thought  and  in  thought.  But  we  have  the  same  power  to  deny 
its  existence  in  any  particular  part  of  the  body,  or  to  locate 
it  outside  of  the  body,  that  we  have  to  think  at  all.  The 
phenomenon  of  misplaced  sensation  is  one  familiar  to  physi- 
cians and  physiologists.  Where  we  think  a  pain  to  be,  there 
it  is  to  us,  for  it  exists  only  in  thought.  To  put  it  out  of 
thought  is  to  annihilate  it.  The  same  is  true  of  disease  in 
the  proper  sense  of  the  word.  By  thought  and  in  thought 
we  give  it  locality.  But  if  it  is  not  in  the  body,  which  is 
intuitively  true,  and  not  in  the  spirit,  which  is  the  real  self, 
then  where  is  it,  you  will  ask  ?  It  exists  in  the  animal  soul 
as  a  false  way  of  thinking.  It  may  come  to  us  from  the 
general  current  of  the  world's  life,  an  established  wrong 
belief  in  the  collective  soul  from  which  we  are  not  discon- 
nected. It  is  the  office  of  faith  to  correct  this  established 
"  public  opinion,"  and  lift  us  out  of  its  disordered  current. 
Faith  disowns  the  disease  or  discomfort  as  belonging  to  the 
non-ego,  or  the  "  not  me,"  and  by  doing  this  we  free  our- 
selves from  it  and  relegate  it  to  its  source. 

With  regard  to  other  diseases,  we  may  affirm  that  paralysis 
is  not  in  the  body.  It  is  a  loss  of  desire  and  will,  which  are 
the  spiritual  principle  of  motion.  Nervous  diseases,  as  they 
are  popularly  called,  are  not  in  the  nerves.     This  popular 


oO  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

notion  or  current  opinion  which  is  encouraged  by  the  learned 
iguorrnce  of  the  various  schools  of  medicine  is  only  super- 
ficial nonsense.  The  nerves  are  innocent  of  any  fault. 
General  debility  is  not  a  physical  condition.  "Weakness  and 
strength  cannot  in  strict  propriety  be  predicated  of  the  bodily 
oi-giinisra,  as  the  five  hundred  muscles  are  not  a  force  any 
more  than  an  engine  is  a  force.  In  the  latter  the  expansive 
l)ower  of  steam  is  the  energy  that  moves  the  powerless 
machinery,  and  even  this  has  its  seat  in  the  universal  world- 
soul  or  life-principle.  General  debility,  for  which  we  give 
Peruvian  bark  and  iron,  is  a  mental  languor.  Every  one 
knows  how  a  little  pleasurable  mental  excitement  increases 
the  strength  and  invigorates  the  whole  muscular  system. 
Nausea  is  not  in  the  membranes  of  the  stomach,  but  is  either 
a  conscious  or  unconscious  feeling  of  repugnance  and  antip- 
athy in  the  soul.  The  very  tJiought  of  a  disgusting  object 
causes  us  to  express  it  b}''  a  movement  as  if  we  were  about 
to  vomit.  Is  it  then  the  object  or  the  thought  of  it  that 
makes  us  sick?  But  3'ou  will  ask,  "  Is  poison  in  the  mate- 
rial substance  or  is  it  in  us?  "  If  I  affirm  it  is  not  necessa- 
rily in  the  drug,  you  will  kindly  ask  me  to  swallow  stricnia 
or  Prussic  acid.  You  will  excuse  me  if  I  answer  you  in  the 
language  of  another  under  analogous  circumstances  :  "Get 
thee  behind  me,  Satan,  for  it  is  written.  Thou  shalt  not 
tempt  the  Lord  thy  God."  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  in  the 
spiritual  or  immaterial  essence  of  Prussic  acid  there  is  some- 
thing antagonistic  to  the  life-principle  in  us.  It  is  certainly 
given  in  medicine  in  small  quantities,  so  that  below  a  certain 
amount  it  is  not  considered  deleterious,  but  useful.  Then  it 
is  not  the  thing  itself  that  kills,  but  the  quantity.  What  we 
affirm,  and  which  is  the  only  practical  principle  in  relation  to 
the  subject  is,  that  having  swallowed  it  accidentally,  so  that 
we  have  not  by  our  presumption  "  tempted  the  Lord  our 
God,"  there  is  a  power  in  a  true  faith  (if  we  have  it  or  can 


TUB    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUUE.  6) 

get  it)  that  will  save  us  from  its  effects.  The  lower  law  of 
its  deadly  influence  will  be  suspended  by  the  action  of  the 
higher  law  of  faith.  For  this  we  have  the  authority  of  Jesus 
the  Christ.  (Mark  xvi :  17,  18.)  If  a  person  swallows  only 
a  small  amount  of  stricnia,  but  under  the  impression  that  it  is 
a  large  quantity,  it  will  intensify  its  effects.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  we  swallow  an  overdose,  but  believing  and  thinlcing  It 
only  a  small  quantity,  it  will  mitigate  its  influence.  If  our 
mode  of  thinking  in  regard  to  it  thus  affects  its  action,  why 
is  it  unreasonable  that  faith  may  wholly  repeal  the  natural 
law  of  its  action  ?  And  if  it  is  thus  an  antidote  to  poison, 
and  annuls  the  law  of  its  action,  why  may  it  not  cure  all 
diseases  that  are  curable  ?  Perhaps  our  best  remedy  is  found 
in  the  simple  prayer,  "  Lord,  increase  our  faith." 

"We  might  continue  this  discussion  in  regard  to  the  mental 
aspect  of  disease,  and  the  common  illusions  respecting  it, 
and  affirm  that  dyspepsia  is  not  a  condition  of  the  stomach, 
and  so  on  through  the  whole  catalogue  of  ills  that  flesh  is 
supposed  to  be  heir  to.  But  enough  has  been  said  to  illus- 
trate a  general  principle.  The  whole  practice  of  materialis- 
tic medication  will  seem  to  the  spiritual  man  as  absurd  as  it 
would  be  to  take  the  invalid  and  place  him  in  the  sunlight, 
and  then  apply  the  remedies  to  the  shadow  of  the  man  rather 
than  to  the  man  himself.  In  the  system  of  Jesus,  the  body 
was  healed  by  saving  and  restoring  the  soul.  So,  in  the 
employment  of  spiritual  forces  and  metaphysical  agencies  in 
the  cure  of  an  invalid,  we  ignore  the  body  so  far  as  to  view 
it  only  as  the  umbra  of  the  real  man,  and  direct  our  atten- 
tion to  the  morbid  idea,  the  mental  image  of  the  disease  in 
the  mind  of  the  patient.  The  importance  of  this  procedure 
we  shall  endeavor  to  show  in  our  next  lesson.  We  do  this 
on  the  self-evident  principle  that  an  effect  will  disappear  on 
the  removal  of  its  cause,  as  an  effect  exists  in  its  cause,  and 
is  one  with  it.     They  must  both  stand  or  fall  together.     We 


62  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

act  also  on  the  principle  laid  down  by  Jesus,  that  "  it  is  the 
spirit  that  maketh  alive ;  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing." 
(John  vi :  G3.)  To  direct  our  attention,  as  is  usually  done, 
to  the  body  only,  is  to  aim  away  from  the  central  mark,  and 
of  necessity  to  miss  it. 


THE   FKIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  63 

OF  TRp 

UNIVERSITY 
CHAPTER  Vni. 

THE   DEEPEST   REALITY    OF     DISEASE   IS    A    MORBID    IDEA 
AND    BELIEF. 

Ideas,  as  we  have  before  shown,  are  conceptions,  or  the 
union  of  thought  and  feeling  on  the  intermediate  plane  of 
our  being.  By  a  morbid  idea  we  mean  a  false  or  erroneous 
intellectual  way  of  thinking,  which,  if  it  becomes  a  fixed 
mode  of  thought,  is  united  to  the  correlative  feeling.  This 
is  the  inner  history  of  the  genesis  of  all  disease.  Every 
material  thing  in  the  universe,  including  the  so-called  physi- 
cal diseases,  exists  in  us  as  an  idea,  without  which  it  has 
and  can  have  no  existence  for  us.  For  the  idea  of  a  thing 
and  the  thing  itself,  are  not  two  separate  and  distinct  enti- 
ties, capable  of  an  existence  independent  of  each  other,  but 
together  they  constitute  an  inseparable  and  indivisible  unity. 
Remove  the  idea  of  a  thing,  as  of  a  chair,  a  table,  or  a  coin, 
or  of  a  so-called  bodily  malady,  as  is  frequently  done  in  the 
magnetic  state,  and  from  a  law  of  necessity,  the  thing  or 
object  disappears.  The  substance  being  removed,  the  phe- 
nomenon, the  appearance,  the  shadow,  goes  with  it.  The 
properties  or  sensible  qualities  of  all  the  objects  of  nature, 
as  Berkeley  unanswerabl}'  demonstrated,  cannot  exist  inde- 
pendent of  or  outside  of  a  percipient  mind.  They  exist  in 
our  minds  as  thoughts  and  ideas,  and  as  a  feeling  which  we 
denominate  a  sensation.  If  we  remove  from  our  minds,  or 
from  the  mind  of  a  patient,  the  mental  image  or  idea  of  the 
malady,  the  disease  will  vanish  as  certainly  as  to  remove  an 
object  from  before  a  mirror  will  cause  the  disappearance  of 
its  reflected  image.     In  proportion  as  the  idea  and  the  bcliej 


64  THE    PRIJIITITE    MIND-CUKE. 

of  a  malady  are  effaced,  it  will  weaken  its  grasp  upon  us. 
Here  is  the  direction  in  which  we  should  perseveringly  aim, 
whatever  therapeutic  devices  we  may  employ.  In  certaiu 
cases,  and  under  the  proper  conditions,  it  may  be  done 
instantaneously,  but  is  more  frequently  effected  gradually. 
A  foggy  atmosphere  does  not  clear  away  at  once,  like  the 
rolling  up  of  the  curtain  in  a  theatre,  but  it  slowly  lifts  to 
show  us  "  the  whitely  shining  hills  of  day."  The  sun  in 
rising  does  not  shoot  up  like  a  rocket  from  a  vessel  in  dis- 
tress, but  the  daybreak  grows  into  the  full  morning. 

When  I  affirm  that  to  remove  from  the  mind  of  an  invalid 
the  idea  of  a  disease,  will  cause  the  disappearance  of  his 
malady,  I  feel  myself  standing  on  an  established  philosophi- 
cal ground,  an  impregnable  scientific  position.  In  order  to 
dislodge  me  from  it,  it  must  be  shown  that  a  person  can 
have  a  pain,  or  discomfort,  or  any  unhappiness,  and  not 
perceive  it  or  know  it.  But  the  problem  for  a  true  medical 
philosophy  to  solve,  is  how  to  effect  this  radical  change  in 
the  mental  status  of  the  patient.  How  can  we  revolutionize 
his  mode  of  thinking,  and  pluck  from  his  mind  the  deeply- 
rooted  idea  of  disease?  Knowledge  is  power,  and  truth  is 
omnipotent.  That  which  is  seemingly  impossible  is  easily 
done  if  we  know  how  to  do  it.  Truth  is  the  kingly  princi- 
ple. Say  the  Hindu  sacred  books,  "  Royal  rule  is  in  its 
essence  truth.  On  truth  the  world  is  based.  Truth  is  lord 
in  the  world.  All  things  are  founded  on  truth,  and  there  is 
nothing  higher  than  it." 

We  know  it  as  a  fact  that  has  often  come  under  our 
observation,  that  the  dislodging  from  the  mind  of  a  patient 
of  a  morbid  idea,  with  its  accompanying  fear  and  unbelief, 
v/hich  has  come  to  have  a  controlling  infiuence,  and  the  sub- 
stitution in  its  place  of  the  opposite  idea  and  belief,  has 
often  effected  an  immediate  and  radical  change  in  his  physi- 
cal condition.  Let  us  take  an  illustrative  case,  for  which 
nearly  every  one's  memory  will  be  able  to  furnish  a  fact  par- 


TIIK    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  65 

allel  with  it.  During  tlie  prevalence  of  an  epidemic  fever,  a 
person  affected  with  a  slight  cold,  or  any  corubiuution  of  dis- 
agreeable sensations,  forms  the  idea  that  he  is  seized  with 
the  malad}-  in  its  incipient  stage.  While  this  belief  reigns 
undisturbed,  he  is,  and  will  continue  to  be,  sick  of  a  fever. 
Under  the  dominating  influence  of  this  idea,  he  suspends  his 
business  and  takes  to  his  bed.  At  this  juncture  of  affairs, 
the  family  physician,  in  whose  skill  and  judgment  he  impli- 
citly relies  arrives  on  the  scene.  He  is  one  of  an  ever-grow- 
ing number,  who  is  rising  from  the  lower  dignity  of  a  physi- 
cian, a  dispenser  of  drugs,  to  the  higher  office  of  a  doctor  or 
teacher.  On  a  careful  and  searching  diagnosis  of  the  case, 
be  assures  the  patient  that  his  anxiety  is  groundless,  his 
f '^ars  without  foundation  ;  that  he  is  laboring  under  an  error, 
and  that  the  dreaded  malady  is  not  a  fixed  actuality.  This 
view  of  the  case  is  accepted,  and  supplants  and  dethrones 
the  other,  and  in  a  brief  time,  as  if  a  mill-stone  had  been 
lifted  from  his  condition,  the  man  rises  from  disease  to 
health,  and  to  the  active  discharge  of  the  duties  of  his 
calling. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  fear  as  a  form  of  unbelief,  or 
rather  misbelief,  and  which  is  the  tap-root  of  many  a  disease, 
is  but  a  suppression  of  faith,  and  not  an  extinction  of  the 
power  or  faculty  of  believing.  Hence,  when  fear  is  removed, 
faith,  its  opposite,  naturally  and  spontaneously  ai'ises.  The 
allaying  of  the  fears  of  a  patient  is  equivalent  to  the  excita- 
tion of  a  saving  or  healing  faith.  Just  as  when  a  spiral 
spring  is  pressed  down  by  a  superincumbent  weight,  if  that 
is  removed,  the  spring  returns  bj-  its  own  elasticity  to  its 
proper  position.  So  if  by  the  divine  power  of  truth,  we  can 
lift  from  an  invalid  that  which  really  holds  him  down,  he 
will  "  arise,  take  up  his  bed,  and  walk." 

Let  us  return  to  the  supposed  case  we  have  before  us. 
Hundreds  of  facts  might  be  given  which  in  principle  are  iden- 
tical with  it,  and  in  all  essential  particulars  are  only  repeti- 


66  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND -CURE. 

tions  of  it.  Let  us  carefully  scrutinize  the  mental  principles 
involved  in  the  cure.  There  was  a  desire  to  get  well,  for  we 
take  it  for  granted  that  the  man  was  not  a  professional  in- 
vaUd.  This  desire  included  in  it  a  willingness  to  use  the 
proper  remedy.  There  was  a  confidence  in  the  knowledge 
and  skill  of  the  physician,  and  this  was  sufficiently  strong  as 
of  necessity  to  constitute  a  pre-disposition  and  tendency  to 
believe  his  suggestions,  and  to  adopt  his  ideas  and  way  of 
thinking.  There  was  also  a  ready  submission  of  the  ivill  to 
the  directions  of  the  physician  and  faith  in  their  efficacy.  In 
this  condition  of  mind,  the  kindly  positive  and  authoritative 
affirmations  of  the  physician  clianged  the  mode  of  the  pa- 
tient's thinMng  in  regard  to  his  disease.  The  idea  of  the 
fever  was  at  once  weakened,  and  obscured,  and  finally 
blotted  out  of  the  mind,  and,  with  its  disappearance,  the 
disease  vanished.  It  was  hke  meeting  a  man  descending  a 
mountain  road  which  we  are  ascending.  We  face  him  di- 
rectly round  in  the  opposite  direction,  take  him  by  the  hand 
and  lead  him  calmly  up  toward  the  summit,  with  its  view  of 
the  promised  land.  This  case,  carefully  studied,  will  be 
found  to  contain,  compressed  into  a  small  compass,  the 
arcane  spiritual  philosophy  of  every  cure  effected  by  any  of 
the  prevailing  methods,  and  especially  of  the  marvels  of 
healing  wrought  by  the  Christ.  And  by  putting  ourselves 
into  the  same  attitude  toward  Him  to-day  as  the  patient  was 
supposed  to  have  done  toward  his  physician,  He  will  heal  I'S 
to-day  in  both  soid  and  body.  "  He  that  cometh  unto  me  I 
wiU  in  no  wise  cast  out"  has  never  yet  been  proven  false. 
If  it  does  in  your  case,  it  will  be  the  fii'st  in  the  history  of 
the  world. 

How  and  by  what  means  this  change  is  to  be  wrought  in 
the  mental  status  of  an  invalid  is  a  matter  to  be  decided  by 
the  skill  and  judgment  of  the  physician.  There  is  no  way  in 
which  it  can  be  done  without  his  consent  and  cooperation. 
Wilt  thou  be  made  whole,  or  wish  you  to  get  well?   must  bo 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  67 

answered  in  the  affirmative,  verbally  or  silently.  "We  can 
lift  a  man  from  the  water,  while  drowning,  by  main  strength 
and  in  spite  of  himself.  But  disease  is  not  cured  in  that 
wa}'.  We  shall  have  to  accommodate  ourselves  to  the  differ- 
ent stage  of  mental  and  spiritual  development  in  which  men 
are  found.  "We  must  sometimes  descend  towards  the  level 
of  their  platform  in  order  to  raise  them  to  ours.  We  must 
condescend  to  their  position,  and  come  into  a  certain  sympa- 
thy with  them  in  order  to  take  them  back  with  us  to  our 
higher  view.  This  principle  of  sympathy  is  supposed  by  the 
Hindu  Mozoomdar  to  furnish  the  key  to  the  mystery  of  the 
cures  effected  by  the  Christ.  But  it  is  not  sympathy  with 
the  disease,  but  sympathy  with  the  true  idea  of  the  man 
which  is  obscured  by  the  disease.  By  coming  into  sympathy 
with  this,  the  two  become  stronger  than  one. 

"When  we  attribute  the  generation  of  diseased  conditions 
of  the  body  to  some  antecedent  abnormality  of  mind,  we  do 
not  mean  to  teach  that  a  given  disease,  as  rheumatism,  or 
dyspepsia,  is  the  instantaneous  creation  of  a  sudden  thought, 
or  the  unexpected  advent  of  an  idea  to  our  consciousness. 
The  disease  may  be  the  fixed  ultimation,  or  ti'anslation  into 
a  bodily  exi"r«ssion  of  modes  of  thought  and  feeling  long 
anterior  to  our  first  recognition  of  it.  A  person  will  say  : 
"  I  was  sick  before  I  thought  anything  about  it ;  as,  for  in- 
stance, I  woke  up  in  the  night  with  a  severe  cold."  This 
means  in  reality  that  you  woke  up  thinking  that  you  had  caught 
a  cold,  or  more  properly  that  the  cold  had  caught  you.  To 
say  that  you  had  a  cold  without  thinking  about  it,  is  in  reality 
affinning  that  you  had  a  cold  without  'knowing  it ;  for  you 
certainly  never  knew  it  until  you  thought  of  it.  Hence  you 
are  testifying  to  what  you  do  not  know,  and,  consequently,  as 
a  witness  in  this  case,  you  are  ruled  out.  You  mean  in  what 
you  say,  that  you  awoke  in  the  night  and  became  conscious 
of  certain  unpleasant  sensations,  which  were  interpreted  to 
mean  a  cold.     But  faith  could  have  given  a  different  meaning 


68  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE. 

to  tliera,  and  you  would  have  escaped  the  cold.  Or,  if  you 
had  never  thought  anything  about  it,  you  would  have  re- 
mained until  this  day  in  blissful  ignorance  that  you  had 
ever  had  a  cold. 

The  true  spiritual  physician  will  never  forget,  whatever  the 
temptation  may  be  to  do  so,  that  there  is  a  higher  therapeu- 
tic efficiency  in  an  idea  than  in  any  drug  known  to  medical 
science.  In  the  language  of  the  learned  German  professor, 
Johannes  Muller,  "The  influence  of  ideas  upon  the  body 
gives  rise  to  a  great  variety  of  phenomena,  which  border  on 
the  marvellous."  He  illustrates  this  by  a  case  mentioned  by 
Pictet.  A  young  lady  who  wished  to  experience  the  intoxi- 
cating effects  of  the  nitrous  oxide  gas,  which  she  had  at  dif- 
ferent times  before  inhaled,  came  to  Pictet  for  that  purpose. 
But,  in  order  to  test  the  power  of  the  imagination,  common 
atmospheric  air  was  given  to  her.  She  had  scarcely  taken 
two  or  three  inspirations  of  it,  when  she  became  insensible 
and  exhibited  all  the  effects  of  the  nitrous  oxide.  The  ques- 
tion arises,  what  was  it  that  so  affected  her  ?  Was  it  anything 
more  than  an  idea,  and  a  belief  ?  Surely  then  the  influence 
attributed  by  Jesus  to  simple  faith  is  not  unreasonable, 
thougli  its  saving  power  is  discounted  in  these  days  of  gross 
material  medication.  The  influence  of  ideas,  Muller  asserts, 
when  they  are  combined  with  a  state  of  emotion,  generally 
extends  in  all  directions,  affecting  the  senses,  motions,  and 
secretions.  But  even  simple  ideas,  unattended  by  any  excited 
state  of  the  feelings,  produce  most  marked  effects  upon  the 
body.  (Miiller's  Elements  of  Physiology.  Vol.  II.,  p.  1392.) 
This  is  an  important  testimony  from  a  high  authority. 

Miiller  lays  down  the  general  law  that  an  idea  having  ref- 
erence to  a  secretion  (and  the  same  is  true  of  any  physiologi- 
cal action)  causes  a  stream  of  nervous  energy  to  be  directed 
towards  the  secreting  organ,  and  if  the  mind  is  at  the  same 
time  influenced  by  an  emotion,  the  effect  just  mentioned  is 
more  marked.     But  what  Muller  denominates  the  nervous 


THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUKE.  69 

energy  I  prefer  to  call  the  universal,  divine  life-principle  in 
nature,  the  akasa  (pronounced  a/tasa)  of  the  Hindu  meta- 
physics, an  all-pervading,  omnipresent,  vivific  principle  of 
life  and  motion  identical  in  its  higher  aspects  with  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  the  Gospels.  An  act  of  faith  determines  a  current, 
so  to  speak,  of  this  inconceivably  subtle  life-force  toward  the 
result  aimed  at  and  desired.  Hence  through  faith,  wliich  is 
but  a  mode  of  thought  in  union  with  feeling,  a  disease  is 
curable  that  otherwise  would  be  incurable. 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  Hindu  mind  that  it  is  transcen- 
dental, and  gives  more  reality  to  the  supersensuous,  and 
especially  to  thought,  than  is  done  in  our  European  and 
American  philosophy.  The  subjective  and  objective  become 
one.  In  the  Ldnka  Ydtara,  one  of  the  sacred  books  of 
Buddhism,  it  is  said:  "What  seems  external  exists  not 
at  all,  only  the  soul  manifests  itself  in  different  forms." 
Again  it  is  affirmed,  "  All  worlds  are  but  the  creation  of  our 
thought."  This  sounds  like  the  words  of  Fichte  in  his  alge- 
braic formula,  "  the  Ego  equals  the  non-Ego  "  or  external  things 
are  included  in  the  Ego  or  inner  self.  Even  Condillac,  who 
reproduced  the  sensational  philosophy  of  Locke  in  France, 
though  a  materialist,  was  compelled  to  say,  "Though  we 
should  soar  into  the  heavens,  though  we  should  sink  into  the 
abyss,  we  never  go  out  of  ourselves ;  it  is  alway^s  our  own 
thought  that  we  perceive."  Neither  Berkeley,  nor  Fichte, 
nor  Schopenhauer  ever  said  more  than  this.  The  doctrine 
taught  by  Buddhism  twenty-five  centuries  ago  has  come  down 
through  Christianity,  and  is  faintly  heard  as  a  dying  echo  in 
Emerson ;  so  faint  that  few  even  hear  it  at  all.  He  says, 
"  All  that  j-ou  call  the  world  is  the  shadow  of  that  substance 
which  you  are,  the  perpetual  creation  of  the  powers  of 
thought,  of  those  that  are  dependent,  and  those  that  are 
independent  of  your  will."  {Nature:  Addresses  and  Lec- 
tures, p.  324.) 

Our  doctrine  is  nothing  new,  and  need  not  be  startling. 


70  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

We  arc  intensely  conservative,  as  was  Jesus  the  Christ,  who 
says  no  man  who  has  drunk  old  wine,  or  tasted  the  ancient 
spiritual  truth,  straightway  desires  the  new,  for  the  old  is 
better.  This  is  not  common  bar-room  talk  about  the  quality 
of  wines,  but  has  a  deeper  meaning.  And  you  will  allow  me 
to  say,  that  in  the  Gospels  and  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  there  is  a 
rich  and  fertile  stratum  of  sub-soil  that  the  common  religious 
plow  does  not  turn  up.  The  surface  of  the  vineyard  is 
becoming  exhausted,  and  unless  we  plough  deeper  we  shall 
raise  but  a  meagre  crop. 

That  the  doctrine  of  this  lesson  is  not  new,  but  belongs  to 
an  old  philosophy  and  archaic  wisdom-religion,  I  present  as 
a  proof  but  one  more  quotation.  In  the  Dhammapada,  one 
of  the  books  of  the  sacred  Canon  of  Buddhism,  among  the 
brief  religious  sentences  of  which  it  is  made  up  we  find  these 
golden  words:  "All  that  we  are  is  the  result  of  what  we 
have  thought ;  it  is  founded  on  our  thoughts,  it  is  made  up 
of  our  thoughts." 

Five  hundred  years  before  Sakya  Muni,  Solomon  says: 
"  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  (Prov.  xxiii :  7.) 
A  thousand  years  after  Solomon,  under  the  modifying  and 
exalting  touch  of  the  higher  wisdom  in  Jesus,  it  becomes  the 
central  principle  in  his  scheme  of  human  redemption,  "Be  it 
unto  thee  according  to  thy  faith."     (Matt,  ix :  29.) 


THE   PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

TIIE    SCIENCE   OF   OBLIVESCENCE,  OR  THE  ART  OF  FORGETTING  A 
MALADY. 

The  possession  of  a  good  memory,  that  holds  all  truth  in 
its  capacious  grasp  ready  for  use  whenever  an  occasion 
arises  which  calls  for  it,  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  our 
mental  attainments.  But  there  are  times,  and  especially  in 
disease  and  in  our  transient  and  permanent  states  of  unhap- 
piness,  when  we  could  be  tempted  to  exchange  it  for  the 
ability  to  forget,  the  power  to  change  the  dh-ection  of  our 
thoughts,  and  expunge  from  the  tablet  of  our  minds  the  mor- 
bid ideas  that  will  not  depart  at  our  bidding.  Like  a  lin- 
gering and  unwelcome  visitor  we  bid  them  adieu  and  hope 
we  are  rid  of  them,  but  they  come  back  again  through  the 
unbolted  door.  They  are  birds  of  evil  omen,  that  not  only 
fly  unbidden  over  our  heads,  but  build  their  nest  in  our  out- 
house, and  will  not  be  scared  away.  In  the  cure  of  a  man's 
disease  (or  in  the  healing  of  ourselves) ,  we  are  to  attend  to 
these  false  and  fallacious  ideas.  Here  is  the  seat  of  the 
trouble,  and  where  the  remedy  is  to  be  applied.  In  showing 
that  disease  exists  on  its  spiritual  and  real  side  as  a  morbid 
idea,  we  have  driven  the  animal  to  his  lair,  and  can  now 
suspend  the  chase  and  raise  the  question  of  the  best  method 
of  extermination.  A  new  idea,  when  it  is  so  administered  to 
an  invalid  as  to  be  appropriated  and  to  become  a  fixed  mode 
of  thinking,  and  is  not  hastily  thrown  off  by  a  mental  excre- 
tion, renews  the  entire  man,  soul  and  body.  Since  thought 
and  existence  are  one  and  the  same,  if  we  change  a  man's 
mode  of  thinking  and  believing,  we  modify  his  whole  life,  as 


72  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

certainly  as  au  alteration  in  the  direction  of  the  wind  from 
west  to  east  will  cause  the  vane  on  the  church-spire  to  point 
eastward.  But  to  dislodge  from  the  mind  of  a  patient  a 
morbid  idea,  that  has  become  fixed  and  maintains  its  hold 
with  au  obstinate  steadfastness,  is  the  most  difficult  work 
the  intelligent  medical  practitioner  has  to  perform,  and  one 
that  few  ever  undertake  to  do,  hence  "They  heal  the  hurt  of 
the  daughter  of  my  people  slightly,"  or  in  part  only  (Jer. 
viii :  11).  To  do  this  requires  more  skill  than  to  amputate 
a  limb  or  select  the  right  drug.  The  common  medical  prac- 
tice is  like  coming  to  the  rescue  of  a  man  who  has  fallen 
among  robbers ;  we  secure  his  valuables,  but  leave  the  man 
in  the  hand  of  his  enemies.  To  change  the  way  of  a 
patient's  thinking,  or  even  our  own,  might  at  first  seem  as 
much  an  impossibility  as  to  change  the  skin  of  the  Ethiopian, 
or  the  spots  of  the  leopard.  It  is  not  enough  to  paint  the 
skin  of  the  one,  or  dye  the  hair  of  the  other.  This  is  super- 
ficial. After  the  return  of "  Berkeley  from  a  journey  in 
France,  he  was  stricken  down  with  a  fever.  On  his  re- 
covery, his  friend,  Dr.  Arbuthuot,  wrote  to  Dean  Swift, 
"Poor  philosopher  Berkeley  has  now  the  idea  of  health, 
which  was  very  hard  to  produce  in  him  ;  for  he  had  an  idea 
of  a  strange  fever  upon  him  so  strong  that  it  was  very  hard 
to  destroy  it  by  introducing  the  contrary  one."  What  the 
learned  and  justly  celebrated  physician  meant  for  a  good 
natured  witticism,  contains  a  profounder  philosophy  of 
human  nature  than  the  medical  schools  ever  teach.  "We 
have  before  shown  that  the  idea  of  a  thing  and  the  thing 
itself  are  not  two  distinct  and  separate  entities,  but  are  nn 
indivisible  unity  and  unbroken  whole.  The  idea,  as  the 
German  idealists  maintain,  is  the  ding  an  sich,  the  thing  in 
itself ;  the  object  is  the  phenomenon,  the  appearance,  the 
shadowy  representation  of  it ;  or,  as  Swedenborg,  following 
the  terminology  of  the  Schoolmen,  would  say,  the  one  is  the 
esse,  the  other  the  existere  derived  from  it.     This  he  always 


THE    PKIMITrVE    MIND-CURE.  73 

affirms  is  tbe  relation  of  tlie  soul  and  its  body.  {Heavenly 
Secrets,  10,823.) 

What  we  must  aim  at  in  the  treatment  of  a  given  malady 
is  permanently  to  efface  the  idea  and  belief  of  it.  If  things 
have  existence  to  us  only  as  we  think  of  them,  then  to  put 
them  out  of  thought  is  practically  to  annihilate  them,  as  wo 
have  shown  in  a  previous  volume.  There  are  works  on  the 
art  of  memory  with  directions  how  to  improve  the  retentive 
power  of  that  faculty,  and  these  volumes  have  their  value  in 
the  education  of  the  young.  But  what  an  invalid,  who 
remembers  too  well  and  too  much,  most  needs  to  learn  is  tlie 
art  of  forgetfulness,  the  blessed  science  of  oblivescence. 
We  are  told  in  all  works  on  mental  philosophy,  that  we  best 
and  longest  remember  that  on  which  we  often  and  intently 
fix  the  attention.  So,  on  the  other  hand,  in  proportion  as 
we  cease  to  attend  to  anything,  or  to  fix  the  thoughts  upon 
it,  the  idea  fades  from  the  mind  and  ceases  to  be  to  us  an 
actuality. 

It  is  oftentimes  amusing,  as  well  as  marvellous,  to  see 
what  an  invalid  can  do  when,  for  some  reason,  he  forgets 
his  disease.  The  coming  into  mind  of  some  more  influential 
thought,  so  that  the  idea  of  disease  drops  out  of  conscious- 
ness, will  effect  in  reality  as  great  results  as  those  about 
which  we  read  in  the  advertisements  of  patent  medicines. 
We  were  knowing  to  a  case  of  rheumatic  lameness  of  long 
standing  where  the  patient,  under  the  diverting  influence! 
of  an  absorbing  conversation,  was  seen  to  walk  for  a 
fourth  of  a  mile  without  any  show  of  lameness.  At  length 
he  paused  short  in  the  road  and  exclaimed  that  he  had  for- 
gotten to  limp !  and,  as  it  was  so  late  in  the  journey,  he 
concluded  not  to  begin.  An  older  brother  of  ours,  who  was 
disabled  by  the  severing  of  the  large  ligaments  of  the  right 
ankle,  in  his  wakeful  hours  could  not  step  his  foot  on  the 
floor ;  yet  in  a  state  of  somnambulism  would  go  where  it 
would  seem  well  nigh  impossible  for  a  person  in  full  wake- 


74  THE    PRIMITITE    MIND-CtTRE. 

fuluess  and  soundness  of  limb  to  transport  himself.     In  the 
somnambulic  state  he  forgot  both  his  lameness  and  his  body. 
The  inner  and  real  man  walked  and  climbed,  and  the  passive 
body  accompanied  it.      The  wife  of  a  tailor  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, who  had  been  confined  to  the  bed  for  years  as  a  help- 
less and  hopeless  invalid,  was  awakened  in  the  middle  of  the 
night  by  the  flames  in  her  room.     The  house  was  on  fire,  and 
there  was   no  time  for  debating  the  question  whether  she 
could  rise  and  walk  or  could  not  walk.     The  all-absorbing 
thought  of  the  impending  danger  effaced  from  her  mind  the 
idea  of  disease,  and  this  suddenly  dropped  out  of  conscious- 
ness, and  in  spirit  she  ran  out  of  doors,  and  the  body  went 
with  it.     In  her  case  the  cure  was  permanent.     These  cases 
were  not  miracles,  but  facts  in  harmony  with  law  —  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  mind  over  the  body.     The  time  is  not  in  a  very 
remote  future  when  people  will  be  educated  in  the  use  of 
these  latent  and  now  dormant,  because  unused,  psychological 
powers.     In  a  speech,  made  many  years  ago  in  the  city  of 
New   York   by   Kossuth,    he   says   that  when   governor   of 
Hungary,  he  was  at  times  nailed  to  his  bed  by  sickness   (to 
use  his  own  expression),  but  news  would  come   from  the 
army  that  demanded  all  the  strength  of  his  activity,  and  in 
the  exercise  of  that  self-originating  power  of  thought  that  is 
usually  but  erroneously  called  free  will,  he  would  say  to  his 
body,  "  Be  well,"  and  it  obeyed  him.     This  was  not  merely 
the  command  of  a  despotic  will,  issuing  its  ukase  to  the  body, 
which  is  as  itseless  as  to  issue  an  order  to  a  rock  to  fly,  but  it 
was  an  act  of  faith —  the  same  ftiith  which  has  subdued  king- 
doms, wrought  righteousness,  obtained  promises,  stopped  the 
mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the  violence  of  fire,  escaped  the 
edge  of  the  sword,  and  to  sum  up  its  sublime  eflects  in  a  few 
words  crowded  with  meaning,  out  of  weakness  has  made  men 
strong.     (Heb.  xi  :  33,  34.)     If  faith  as  a  causal  agent  and 
power  will  accomplish  such  results,  is  the  cure  of  disease  by 
it  to  be  deemed  an  incredible  and  impossible  achievement? 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  VO 

But  the  oft-repeated  question  will  again  arise  in  the  reader's 
mind,  "  How  am  I  to  get  this  faith?"  The  very  question 
involves  in  it  a  fundamental  mistake.  You  are  not  to  get  it 
in  any  way,  but  to  use  it.  We  are  looking  for  what  we 
already  possess,  like  a  man  who  is  asked  to  lift  an  obstruc- 
tion out  of  his  path,  and  he  inquu'es,  "  Where  are  my  arms 
\vith  which  I  can  do  it?"  Faith  is  only  the  action  of  the 
mind  above  the  plane  of  sense,  with  its  false  and  deceptive 
appearances.  In  the  atmosphere  of  the  world  of  both  matter 
and  mind,  there  is  a  lower  and  an  upper  stratum  that  move 
in  opposite  directions.  Like  an  adventurous  aeronaut,  we 
must  cut  the  cable  of  sense  that  holds  us  to  the  earth  and  its 
illusions,  and  we  shall  rise  into  a  current  of  thought  that 
will  bear  us  in  the  opposite  direction,  away  from  the  West 
toward  the  East,  the  true  orient,  the  home  of  the  rising  sun, 
the  origin  of  things.  In  the  cases  mentioned  above,  the 
inner  man  broke  through  the  chi-ysalis  encasement  of  the 
senses,  and  seized  the  helm  and  turned  the  vessel,  about  to 
founder  in  a  storm,  in  the  opposite  direction.  To  discover 
the  inward  and  supreme  man,  the  true  self,  is  to  come  into 
the  possession  of  faith.  He  is  invisible  and  concealed  be- 
hind a  thin  curtain,  and  by  a  signal  can  be  summoned  to  our 
aid.  The  Being  whom  we  call  God  is  the  most  intimately 
present  and  active  force  in  the  world,  but  is  deeply  veiled 
from  sight. 

It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  all  causes  are  absolutely 
invisible  to  the  external  senses.  They  exist  in  a  realm  of 
being  of  which  the  senses  are  not  and  cannot  be  cognizant. 
It  is  only  effects  that  are  ever  discernable  to  the  sensuous 
degree  of  the  mind  or  the  psychical  man.  When  I  exert  a 
certain  mental  energ}',  which  we  name  volition,  I  raise  m^' 
arm.  The  visible  motion  is  but  the  outward  expression  of 
an  unseen  mental  force.  So  when  I  move  a  chair  or  a  table, 
the  power  which  does  it  is  out  of  sight.  Take  as  an  illustra- 
tion the  apparent  movement  of  one  ball  by  another  on  a 


7G  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

billiard  table.  The  first  ball  is  not  the  cause  of  the  motion 
of  the  second,  but  the  real  cause  lies  further  back.  It  origi- 
nates in  the  mind  of  the  player.  He  makes  an  exertion  of 
will  which  communicates  a  motion  to  the  muscles  of  his  arm. 
This  is  transmitted  to  the  cue  that  is  held  in  his  hand,  and 
through  this  it  is  communicated  to  the  first  ball,  through  that 
to  the  second,  and  so  on.  But  the  only  cause  is  a  mental 
force  or  act  which  is  an  invisible  spiritual  energy.  In  a  way 
analogous  to  this  God  governs  the  world,  and  we  our  bodily 
organism.  We  must  fix  it  in  our  thought  as  a  fundamental 
axiom  that  matter  in  all  its  modifications,  forms,  movements, 
conditions,  and  qualities,  whether  in  the  human  body  or  the 
world  at  large,  is  never  anything  but  an  effect,  of  which 
some  spiritual  force  is  the  originating  and  governing  cause. 
The  absolute  impossibility  and  non-existence  of  physical 
causation  is  a  prominent  article  in  the  creed  of  the  spiritual 
man.  The  body  can  never  affect  the  mind.  But  turn  this 
affirmation  bottom  side  up  and  you  get  the  truth.  But  it  is 
said  that  if  you  tie  a  ligature  around  the  arm  or  the  leg,  it 
will  interfere  with  the  circulation  and  obstruct  the  healthy 
action  of  the  limb.  This  is  admitted,  but  before  we  surren- 
der our  position  we  may  be  allowed  to  pause  and  inquire  if 
the  cord  tied  itself,  or  was  it  somebody's  mind  and  will  that 
tied  it?  Does  a  billiard  ball  or  a  boy's  marble  ever  move 
itself?  It  does  just  as  much  as  the  world  or  the  human  body 
ever  moves  itself.  Now  the  principle  of  all  motion  and  the 
realm  of  causation  belong  to  the  "  unseen"  but  real  world. 
And  when  we  are  in  the  interior  state,  and  act  from  that 
region  of  our  being,  we  are  in  the  realm  of  causation,  and 
the  thoughts  and  volitions  of  the  spirit  become  themselves 
causes,  especially  when  they  act  in  harmony  with  the  benev- 
olent aims  of  the  Universal  Mind,  of  which  our  minds  are 
only  personal  limitations. 

We  know  that  one  mind  can  affect  another  mind,  and  thus 
effect  the  body.     This  is  a  demonstrated  fact,  as  mucU  so  as 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  4  / 

any  principle  of  Chemistry.  Says  Dr.  George  Wyld,  "  The 
very  common  experiment  of  blindfolding  certain  individuals 
and  then  touching  them  with  one  finger,  or  sometimes  willing 
them  without  contact,  and  thus  influencing  them  to  act 
according  to  your  secret  thoughts  demonstrates  the  silent 
action  of  mind  on  mind,  and  through  this  on  the  bodies  of 
other  persons."  {Theosophy  and  the  Higher  Life, -p.  27.) 
I  simply  recommend  this  power  of  the  mind,  as  I  have  done 
for  twenty-five  years,  in  the  cure  of  disease  in  ourselves  and 
others.  It  can  be  made  to  inaugurate  and  accelerate  an 
impulse  towards  recovery.  Do  not  the  above-mentioned 
interesting  psychological  phenomena  render  its  use  for  that 
purpose  rational  and  worthy  of  trial  ? 

The  phenomena  mentioned  by  Dr.  Wyld  may  seem  trifling 
and  frivolous.  So  does  the  movement  of  the  marbles  by  a 
boy  in  his  sports,  yet  he  employs  a  force  like  that  by  which 
God  moves  the  worlds  in  their  orbits.  To  raise  our  curative 
effort  above  the  appearance  of  trifling,  our  silent  suggestion 
may  take  the  form  of  unspoken  prayer,  that  summons  to  our 
aid  the  Central  Power  of  the  universe.  We  shall  ilhisti-ate 
this  principle  of  silent  suggestion  more  fully  in  our  next 
lesson. 

It  only  remains  in  the  language  of  Paul  to  answer  the 
question,  "How  may  we  get  faith?"  Says  the  inspired 
apostle,  "  Faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word 
of  God."  (Rom.  x:17.)  The  original  term  for  hearing 
(akoe)  means  instruction  in  a  derivative  sense,  the  listening 
or  hearkening  to  a  teacher.  But  the  teacher  is  the  Word  of 
God,  not  a  book,  but  a  rema,  a  flowing  out,  an  emanation  from 
God.  The  same  word  is  used  by  Jesus  when  he  affirms  that 
man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone  ;  in  fact,  not  at  all,  but  by 
an  emanative  life  and  light  from  God.  (Matt,  iv  :  4.)  This 
principle  of  light  and  life,  this  ti-ue  bread  of  life,  is  that 
primal  emanation  from  God  which  we  name  the  Universal 
Spirit,  of  which  our  spirit  is  an  individualized  expression. 


78  THE   PRIMITIVE   MINP-CUEE. 

"The  spirit  of  man,"  said  Solomon,  "  is  the  candle  of  the 
Lord,  searching  all  his  inwards  parts."  (Prov.  xx:27.) 
Now  a  candle  does  not  in  reality  shine  by  its  own  light,  but 
is  a  manifestation  of  a  universal  luminiferous  principle  of 
light.  So  the  spurit  of  man  is  a  finite  limitation  of  the 
Universal  Spirit,  the  Christ  of  Paul,  and  the  true  light  of 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  In  our  worldliness 
we  have  covered  it  with  a  bushel,  an  opaque  veil  of  sense. 
But  the  precept  of  the  higher  wisdom  in  Jesus  is,  "  Let  your 
light  shine."  (Matt,  v  :  16.)  It  is  in  a  perpetual  endeavor, 
as  all  light  is,  to  shine,  but  we  prevent  it  by  our  impenetra- 
ble and  commercial  bushel.  We  limit  and  measure  it  as  the 
merchant  does  his  produce  kept  on  sale.  We  are  enjoined 
to  let  our  light  shine.  We  are  not  to  institute  a  long  series 
of  efforts  and  devices  to  maT<:e  it  shine.  We  are  not  to  blow 
"the  candle  of  the  Lord"  as  a  man  would  the  smoking 
embers  of  his  fire,  for  by  that  procedure  we  are  in  danger  of 
blowing  it  out.  But  remove  the  bushel  and  assume  an  atti- 
tude of  listening,  which  a  true  disciple  always  takes,  and  Wke. 
the  one  in  Patmos,  we  shall  turn  to  see  the  voice  that  speaks 
(Rev.  i :  12),  for  it  is  that  inaudible  word  or  emanative  light 
of  truth  which  proceeds  from  the  mouth  of  God. 

*'  Hearken,  hearken ! 
Shall  we  hear  the  lapsing  river 
And  our  brother's  sighing  ever, 

And  not  the  voice  of  Grod? " 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  7? 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  INCIPIEKT   IDEA   OF   RECOVERY,  AND  WHENCE   DOES   IT 
COME? 

The  first  indication  of  recovery  from  disease  is  discernible 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  patient  in  the  idea,  the  impres- 
sion, the  belief  howQYQT  faint,  that  he  is  recovering  and  will 
ultimately  get  well.  This  prophetic  idea  is  the  initial  step 
up  the  ladder  on  which  we  climb  from  disease  to  health.  It 
does  not  in  reality,  but  only  in  appearance,  follow  any  favor- 
able bodily  change.  It  is  the  herald  of  the  subsequent 
recuperation  of  the  physical  powers.  It  is  anterior  to  any 
favorable  modification  of  the  bodily  symptoms,  the  John  the 
Baptist  in  the  wilderness  of  our  disordered  condition,  an- 
nouncing the  approach  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  us.  It  is 
not  an  effect  of  an  antecedent  physical  change,  but  a  cause. 
The  spiritual  idea  is  the  forerunner  bearing  the  news  of  the 
coming  victory  of  spirit  over  matter ;  and  if  the  idea  is  ac- 
cepted and  finds  lodgement  in  the  consciousness,  it  silently 
and  with  divine  celerity  goes  to  work  to  adjust  the  body  into 
its  outward  expression,  or  to  ti-anslate  the  language  of  heaven 
into  the  vernacular  of  sense.  It  is  the  secret  Logos,  the 
creative  Word,  the  invisible  divine  force  that  in  all  creation 
works  from  within  outward. 

But  whence  comes  this  sanative  idea,  this  creative  thought, 
this  heahng  belief?  It  certainly  comes  from  the  uuiversal 
realm  of  mind,  and  issues  from  the  spiritual  world  ol  which 
our  minds  are  a  part,  for  all  ideas  belong  to  that  boundless 
realm  of  hfe.  As  that  world  is  in  a  perpetual  endeavor,  and 
has  in  it^  nature  a  conatus  to  impart  good  and  truth  to  us,  as 


80  THE    PUIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

certainly  as  the  all-surrounding  atmosphere  is  by  its  pressure 
striving  to  fill  every  vacuum,  the  patient  may  receive  it 
directly  from  the  Universal  Mind,  if  his  soul  is  held  passively 
open  and  upward  to  imbibe  and  absorb  its  influx.  We  know 
that  to  whisper  in  a  person's  ear  will  wake  him  out  of  sleep, 
if  not  as  quickly,  still  as  certainly,  as  to  blow  a  trumpet.  So 
the  Logos,  the  Metatron,  or  redeeming  angel  of  the  Jewish 
Kabala,  the  inward  voice,  whispers  in  our  inner  ear  to  arouse 
us  from  the  lethargy  of  the  life  of  sense  to  the  life  of  the 
spirit.  Even  Jesus  may  thus  speak  to  the  true  disciple  if 
the  inner  ear  is  attuned  in  harmony  with  celestial  music,  and 
the  sheep  may  still  hear  the  voice  of  the  good  shepherd. 
It  is  not  the  Christ  who  has  become  dumb ;  we  are  only  hard 
of  hearing.  Tf  we  turn  the  inner  ear  towards  the  ever-present 
Universal  Christ,  we  shall  "  hear  the  heart  of  silence  thi-ob 
with  a  soundless  word,"  as  the  mystics  of  all  ages  and  all  lands 
have  done.  The  secret  Logos,  the  true  light  of  life,  is  con- 
cealed in  the  depths  of  our  own  being.  It  speaks  to  men  in 
the  advent  of  a  saving  idea  clothed  in  silence, —  a  deep  and 
calm  revealing.  This  is  not  a  new  doctrine,  but  a  former 
friend  and  acquaintance,  who  has  been  so  long  absent  from 
this  materialistic  generation,  that  we  have  forgotten  his 
countenance.  It  is  not  a  doctrine  that  belongs  to  a  shallow, 
religious  enthusiasm,  but  to  philosophy  as  well ;  from  the 
Hindu  Upanishads  down  through  Sokrates,  with  his  claimo- 
tiion,  or  inward  divine  voice,  into  Christianity,  where  in  the 
church  it  has  wellnigh  been  buried  out  of  sight.  On  this 
subject  the  Rev.  John  Norris,  who  reproduced  in  England 
the  philosophy  of  Malebranche,  when  writing  about  1690, 
says  that  "  the  Divine  Nous,  or  Eternal  Wisdom,  is  intrinsi- 
cally with  or  praesential  to  the  mind,  and  we  see  and  un- 
derstand all  things  in  Ilim.  From  this  it  necessarily  follows 
that  the  right  and  only  method  of  inquiry  after  that  truth 
which  is  perfective,  is  to  consult  the  Divine  Nous  or  Eternal 
Wisdom.     For  this  is  the  region  of  truth,  and  here  arc  hid 


THE    riUMITIVE    JIIND-CmiE.  81 

all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  aud  knowledge.  It  is  that  great 
and  universal  oracle  lodged  in  every  man's  breast,  whereof 
the  ancient  Urim  and  Thummim  (lights  and  perfections) 
were  an  expressive  type  and  symbol.  This  is  reason  ;  this 
is  conscience  ;  this  is  truth ;  this  is  that  light  within,  so 
darkly  tallied  of  by  some  who  have  by  their  awkward,  un- 
toward, and  unskilful  way  of  representing  it,  discredited  one 
of  the  noblest  theories  in  the  world.  But  the  thing  in  itself, 
rightly  understood,  is  true  ;  and  if  any  man  shall  yet  call  it 
Quakerism  or  enthusiasm,  I  shall  only  make  this  reply  at 
present,  that  it  is  such  Quakerism  as  makes  a  good  part  of 
John's  Gospel  and  Augustine's  works.  But  to  return  :  this,  I 
say,  is  that  Divine  Oracle  which  we  all  may  and  must  consult, 
if  ^c  would  enrich  our  minds  with  ti'uth  —  that  truth  which 
is  perfective  of  the  understanding.  And  this  is  the  method 
of  being  truly  wise.  And  this  method  is  no  other  than  what 
is  advised  us  by  the  Divine  Nous,  the  substantial  Wisdom  of 
God  (Prov.  viii :  34)  :  "  Blessed  is  the  man  that  heareth  me, 
watching  daily  at  my  gates,  waiting  at  the  posts  of  my 
doors,"  And  again,  says  the  same  substantial  Wisdom : 
"Whoso  is  simple  (sincere,  honest)  let  him  turn  in  hither." 
(Prov.  ix  :  4.)  And  again,  "  I  am  the  light  of  the  world  ;  he 
that  followeth  me  (or  as  the  word  more  properlj-  signifies,  he 
that  consorts  or  keeps  compan}-  with  me) ,  wallceth  not  in 
darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of  life."     (John  viii :  12.) 

This,  therefore,  is  the  via  intelligentia^,  the  way  and 
method  of  true  knowledge,  —  to  apply  ourselves  to  the 
Divine  Nous,  the  eternal  Wisdom  of  God.  But  this  is  to 
be  found  only  in  that  region  of  oui*  being  which  is  in  accord 
with  it,  and  an  inlet  to  it. 

The  initial  idea  of  recovery  may  come  to  the  patient 
through  the  influence  of  others  ;  for  how  much  our  silent 
fears  and  forebodings  on  the  one  hand,  and  our  hopes  and 
our  faith  on  the  other  hand,  may  have  to  do  with  the  vary- 
ing condition  of  the  sick,  we  do  not  fully  realize.     A  dis- 


82  TDK    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

abled  and  leaky  vessel  may  be  saved  from  going  down  and 
brought  safely  into  port  by  attacliing  it  to  a  ;  troug  and  well- 
built  steamer.  In  harmony  with  this  law  of  sympathy,  we 
find  that  it  was  sometimes  through  the  faith  of  others,  rather 
than  that  of  the  patient,  that  Jesus  the  Christ  found  a  cure 
possible.  Our  individual  minds,  acting  on  a  higher  plane  of 
thought,  may  be  the  medium  of  the  transmission  to  him  of 
the  incipient  idea  of  recovery,  and  our  silent  sphere  may 
communicate  to  him  a  divine  therapeutic  impression,  which 
will  grow  into  a  physiological  impulse  in  the  du'ection  of 
health.  A  sympathetic  friend,  with  his  better  thoughts  and 
hopeful  atmosphere  and  words  of  cheer,  adds  new  fuel  to  the 
smouldering  embers  of  my  vital  fire.  His  influence  snuffs 
the  candle  burned  down  to  a  smoking  wick.  As  a  withered 
plant  may  absorb  a  reviving  moisture  from  the  air,  so  I 
receive  new  life  from  him.  In  treating  a  patient  for  the 
removal  of  the  morbid  idea  in  his  mind,  of  which  the  disease 
is  but  the  outward  expression,  I  know  of  no  better  way  than 
to  form  the  true  idea  of  him  in  my  own  mind,  and  set  this 
over  against  his  idea  of  himself.  To  one  who,  judging  from 
the  plane  of  sense,  thinks  himself  sick,  he  is  so  to  himself ; 
but  to  one  who,  looking  deeper,  so  as  to  find  the  real  man, 
and  thinks  and  knows  that  the  true  self  is  not  diseased,  to 
him  the  man  is  not  sick.  Here  is  a  contest  of  ideas  for  the 
mastery,  the  old  battle  of  Michael,  the  prince  of  God,  the 
representative  of  the  Christ-principle  or  of  sph'it  on  one  side, 
and  of  the  dragon  on  the  other,  the  symbol  of  the  principle 
of  sense,  the  nephesh,  the  old  serpent,  reproduced  on  a 
smaller  scale.  Here  it  is  an  individual  soul,  rather  than  the 
world  at  large.  (Rev.  xii :  7-11.)  But  as  our  idea  is  spir- 
itual, and  his  is  on  a  lower  plane,  and  as  the  higher  by 
divine  right  governs  the  lower,  the  unequal  contest  is  not 
doubtful.  "The  dragon  and  his  angels  fought,  but  pre- 
vailed not.  And  now  is  come  the  salvation,  and  the  power, 
and  the  kingdom  of   our   God,   and   the   authority   of   his 


THE   PRIMITIVJS   MIND-CURE.  83 

Christ,"  for  the  accuser  or  deceiver  (the  principle  of  sense) 
is  cast  down.  This  old  war  between  the  spirit  and  the  flesh 
is  not  always  settled  in  a  day,  but  if  we  form  the  true  idea 
of  ourselves  and  tenaciously  maintain  this  mental  position, 
iie  animal  soul  and  its  body  will  surrender  to  it  in  the  end. 

It  is  a  doctrine  taught  in  the  ancient  Hermetic  philosophy, 
and  the  esoteric  science  of  the  East,  that  there  is  a  Universal 
Mind.  It  is  enough  for  our  present  purpose  to  say,  that  this 
Mind  connects  all  individual  minds  in  a  state  of  sympathy 
It  is  the  underlying  philosophy  of  psychometry,  or  the  sus 
ceptibility  of  being  affected  by  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of 
others.  For  from  this  Universal  Mind,  or  Greatest  Man,  as 
the  Swedish  seer  denominates  it,  our  minds  are  never  sepa- 
rated, and  through  it  our  thought  and  will  impulses  are  com- 
municated to  others,  in  a  way  analogous  to  that  in  which 
sound  is  supposed  to  be  transmitted  from  one  place  to  an- 
other through  the  atmosphere  which  unites  them.  Of  this 
universal  mind-principle,  Emerson  says,  in  the  commence- 
ment of  his  Essay  on  History :  "  There  is  one  mind  common 
to  all  individual  men.  Every  man  is  an  inlet  to  the  same, 
and  to  all  of  the  same.  He  that  is  once  admitted  to  the 
right  of  reason,  is  a  freeman  of  the  whole  estate.  What 
Plato  has  thought,  he  may  think ;  what  a  saint  has  felt,  he 
may  feel ;  what  has  at  any  time  befallen  any  man,  he  can 
understand.  Who  hath  access  to  this  universal  mind  is  a 
party  to  aU  that  is  or  can  be  done  ;  for  this  is  the  only  and 
sovereign  agent.  ...  Of  this  universal  mind  each  individual 
is  one  more  incarnation."  {Essays,  First  Series,  pp.  11,  12.) 
Every  man  is  not  only  an  inlet  of  this  universal  mind,  but 
may  be  an  outlet  of  it.  It  not  only  flows  into  us,  but  our 
individual  mind  may  be  a  channel  through  which  it  may  go 
forth  to  bless  and  strengthen  others,  and  that  whether  they 
are  in  the  same  room  with  us,  or  miles  away ;  for  in  this 
universal  principle  distance  is  annihilated,  and  we  may  attain 
to  that  highest  triumph  of  mind,  visio  in  distantia,  et  actio  in 


S4  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

distantia,  as  Schopenhauer  calls  it,  or  vision  and  action  iude- 
pendent  of  distance.  For  it  is  one  of  the  deepest  laws  of 
our  inner  being,  that  the  spirit  is  always  present  with  the 
object  of  thought,  and  that  object  tends  to  become  one  with  it. 
The  mind  of  others  is  included  in  the  general  mind  that  com- 
prises ours  also  in  itself.  Our  will,  faith,  and  imagination 
may  transmit  through  it  a  beneficent  and  saving  impulse,  for 
no  man  is  or  can  be  alone.  He  is  in  vital  and  sympathetic 
conjunction  with  the  whole  realm  of  mind ;  as  much  so  as 
the  air  in  this  room  is  not  sundered  from  the  air  of  immen- 
sity, and  it  may  be  renewed  from  it.  It  greatly  increases 
our  psychological  and  spiritual  power  in  our  efforts  to  do 
good  and  relieve  human  suffering,  to  feel  that  this  universal 
mind  (which,  when  uncontaminated  by  the  general  world- 
life,  is  the  Holy  Spirit)  lies  back  of  us  as  a  reserved  force, 
to  be  called  into  action  when  the  occasion  demands  it.  We 
should  so  consecrate  ourselves  to  the  good  of  universal  being, 
that  we  may  become  an  organ  of  communication  between  the 
Universal  Divine  Life  and  the  diseased  and  unhappy  one  to 
whom  we  are  called  to  minister.  Says  Dr.  Wyld,  in  his 
excellent  little  book,  "The  wholesome,  pure,  and  benevolent 
man  or  woman,  by  simply  placing  the  hands  on  the  patient, 
and  calmly  desiring  the  blessing  of  God,  would  seem  to  be- 
come sometimes  a  medium  for  the  transmission  of  spiritual 
benevolence."  (Theosophy  and  the  Higher  Life,  p.  12.) 
There  can  be  no  doubt  than  it  was  the  belief  of  the  primitive 
and  Apostolic  Church,  that  a  divine,  sanative  virtue  and  in- 
fluence could  be  thus  imparted  to  those  who  were  receptive 
of  it.  If  it  were  ever  done  in  any  age  of  the  world,  it  can 
be  done  now  as  well. 

By  the  power  of  silent  suggestion,  combined  with  a  sincere 
desire  to  impart  good  and  truth,  and  by  vocal  utterance  if  we 
deeply  feel  it,  we  can  do  much  towards  dislodging  from  the 
mind  of  an  invalid  the  idea,  the  belief,  the  thought  of  liis 
mahidy,  and  with  the  disappearance  of  this  the  body  can  be 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CCRE.  85 

left  40  take  care  of  itself,  or  rather  it  can  be  commended,  like 
the  plants  of  om*  garden,  to  the  loving  care  of  the  Universal 
Life  of  nature.  Our  main  point  of  attack  should  be  on  the 
morbid  idea,  for  if  this  be  expelled  from  its  throne  the  sceptre 
will  be  taken  by  the  higher  soul,  and  convalescence  will  com- 
mence. Just  as  when  a  vessel  has  grounded  on  a  dangerous 
sand-bar  at  the  entrance  of  a  harbor,  by  throwing  over  the  use- 
less ballast  it  will  float  of  itself  and  by  a  law  of  its  nature.  So 
when  the  aeronaut  finds  himself  descending  into  a  swamp,  he 
throws  out  a  sand-bag,  and  he  rises  into  a  higher  stratum  of 
the  atmosphere.  By  the  power  of  silent  thought,  which  in  its 
nature  is  a  tacit  speech,  we  can  deposit  in  the  fruitful  soil  of 
the  nnconscioics  mind  of  an  invalid  the  living  germ  of  a  better 
condition,  which,  like  the  mustard  seed  of  Palestine,  will 
develop  into  a  tree.  We  may  inoculate  him  with  a  sanative 
contagion.  "We  may  insert  into  his  tree  of  life  the  bud,  the 
living  scion,  that  will  unfold  into  a  branch  beai-ing  better 
fruit.  The  spiritual  nature  of  man  acting  through  the  will 
and  imagination,  and  determined  to  a  definite  aim  by  love 
and  faith,  is  the  most  real  force  in  the  universe,  for  thoughts 
«ire  not  "  trifles  light  as  air,"  but  are  substance  and  divinely 
living  things.  Wlien  an  individual  is  in  a  passive,  and  con- 
,3equently  receptive,  state,  and  is  actuated  by  a  sincere  desire 
of  recovery,  he  is  highl}'  sensitive  to  our  thought  and  will- 
impulses,  and  these  may  affect  the  inner  ground  of  his  being. 
Though  the  impressions  we  make  may  not  at  the  time  be 
felt  b}'  him,  they  are  undoubtedly  received,  and  under  the 
proper  circumstances  will  manifest  themselves  in  his  improved 
condition.  They  are  sometimes  like  characters  written  with 
invisible  ink,  which  on  exposure  to  the  light  and  heat  of  the 
fire  become  plainly  legible. 

I  would  not  give  to  the  above  a  factitious  value,  like  the 
advertisement  of  a  patent  nostrum,  but  may  be  allowed  to 
say  that  after  experiments  with  it  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
cen;.ury.  in  connection  with  the  old  occult  science  of  magnet' 


86  THE    PKIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

ism  or  the  wisdom-lore  of  the  ancient  Magi,  of  which  it  is  a 
part,  I  have  found  it  to  possess  a  therapeutic  efficiency. 
There  is  no  method  (at  least,  I  humbly  confess  after  long  and 
patient  search  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  one)  that  will 
cure  everybody  and  everything  without  regard  to  conditions, 
that  sometimes  lie  beyond  our  control.  Even  Jesus,  the 
Christ,  did  not  and  does  not  now  scatter  cures  around  him, 
like  a  royal  prince  tlirowiug  a  handful  of  coiu  into  a  crowd  of 
beggars.  He  cui'ed  the  receptive  few,  and  left  the  unrecep- 
live  many  as  they  were.  Nor  is  there  any  system  of  healing 
known  to  the  most  peneti'ating  eye  of  spiritual  science  that 
can  cure  a  man  and  leave  him  to  live  as  he  lists.  This  is  a 
noxious  medical  heresy,  at  which  we  wish  to  hurl  a  passing 
rebuke,  for  it  is  either  ignorance  of  all  the  laws  that  govern 
i-uman  life,  or  something  worse.  If  the  former,  I  take  back 
the  rebuke  ;  if  it  be  the  latter,  I  let  it  stand.  Nor  is  there 
.-oy  mental  science  of  healing  the  ills  that  flesh  is  said  to  be 
heir  to  that  a  man  can  learn  and  successfully  apply,  irrespec- 
tive of  the  degree  of  his  mental  attainments  and  spiritual 
development.  It  is  possible  to  giA'e  to  a  student  of  spiritual 
philosophy  only  the  alphabet,  and  he  must  become  in  himself 
all  the  rest.  As  the  Rosicrucians  of  the  days  of  old  said, 
"  the  Rosie  Cross  becomes  and  is  not  made."  And  the 
needed  spiritual  evolution  or  unfolding  is  not  the  result  of  a 
single  revolution  of  the  earth  on  its  axis,  like  the  abnormal 
and  unsubstantial  growth  of  Jonah's  gourd,  but  may  be  the 
slower  and  surer  product  of  years.  But  I  would  not  convey 
the  impression  that  to  become  spiritual  we  must  hide  away 
from  the  world  in  the  unapproachable  solitude  of  mountains, 
or  entomb  ourselves  alive  within  the  barred  enclosure  of  a 
monastery.  Jesus  did  not  this,  and  never  recommended  it. 
We  may  grow  up  with  the  world  and  in  it,  and  not  be  of  it. 

To  return  to  the  subject  of  silent  suggestion,  we  remark 
that  it  may  be  employed  as  an  expression  of  faith  in  the 
reatment  of  ourselves.     Based  on  the  doctrine  of  the  triune 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CtJRE.  87 

nature  of  man,  and  that  the  pneuma  of  the  Now  Testament 
psychology  and  the  Buddhi  of  the  Hindu  philosophy  is  divine, 
and  that  matter  is  an  illusion,  we  ought  to  be  able  to  say  in 
thought,  and  to  teach  an  invalid  to  say,  I  am  not  sick  or 
UNHAPPY.  The  disease  is  no  more  a  part  of  myself  than  the 
mould  on  the  plant  is  the  same  as  the  plant,  or  the  barnacles 
on  a  ship  are  a  part  of  the  ship.  The  body  is  no  more 
myself  than  the  clothes  I  wear,  and  a  rent,  a  stain,  or  a  patch 
in  my  garment  does  not  affect  the  man.  But  the  ti'uth  of 
which  the  suggestion  is  the  formulation,  to  be  the  most  effi- 
cient, must  arise  from  within.  It  then  becomes  the  secret 
Logos,  the  Vach  or  sacred  speech  of  the  Vedas,  the  still  small 
voice,  the  inaudible  "  word,"  and  has  a  divine  potency'  in  it. 
This  soundless  word  is  the  Deus  dixit,  the  Lord  said,  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  of  the  Jewish  prophets.  It  is  the  "  lost 
word  "  which  modern  Masonry  laments,  and  for  which  they 
try  to  find  a  substitute.  It  is  that  word  or  "  ineffable  name," 
through  which,  according  to  the  belief  of  all  nations,  wonders 
were  wrought,  and  which  Jesus  possessed  in  its  perfection. 
The  remarkable  faith  of  the  centurion  consisted  in  liis  confi- 
dence in  the  saving  power  of  this  word.  "  Speak  the  word 
only,  and  my  child  (or  servant)  shall  be  healed."  (Matt. 
viii :  5-10.)  If  we  have  not  this  inner  or  occult  word,  we  do 
but  little  in  the  cure  of  disease  by  spiritual  forces  and 
agencies,  and  we  must  cover  our  face  with  a  mantle  and 
stand  in  the  opening  of  the  cave,  as  Elijah  did,  until  it 
comes  to  us. 

There  is  above  us,  and  around  us,  and  in  us  a  realm  of 
pure  spu'it,  and  inhabited  by  spiritual  beings  as  much  above 
our  ordinary  humanity  that  conti'ibutes  to  the  swelling  of  the 
volume  of  the  census  as  they  are  above  the  lower  order  ot 
animals.  It  was  a  favorite  conception  of  Plato  that  thinldng 
is  asking.  Thought  directed  to  the  universal  world  of  spirit 
becomes  a  silent  interrogative  impulse,  and  a  response  is 
echoed  back  in  a  spiritual   idea  or  thought  in  our  minds. 


88  THE   PRIMITIVE  MIND-CUEE. 

Hence  the  pliilosophieal  disquisitions  of  Plato  took  the 
dialogue  form.  If  the  reader  should  feel  that  thought 
addressed  to  this  boundless  realm  of  life  is  like  speaking  into 
vacancy,  let  him  think  of  Jesus,  and  your  cogitative  aim  has 
hit  the  central  mark,  for  he,  according  to  Paul,  has  been 
exalted  to  its  summit  and  stands  at  its  head.  Through  him 
as  a  point  of  contact  we  come  into  communion  with  the  high- 
est realm  of  life  and  thought.  We  drink  at  the  fountain- 
head  of  pure  spiritual  knowledge.  I  cannot  better  close  this 
somewhat  protracted  lesson  than  in  the  language  of  that 
noble  man,  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  :  "  As  pilgrims  we  approach 
the  great  saints,  and  commune  with  them  in  spirit,  killiug 
the  distance  of  time  and  space.  We  enter  into  them,  and 
they  enter  into  us.  In  our  souls  we  cherish  them,  and  imbibe 
their  character  and  principles.  If  they  are  not  personally 
present  with  us,  they  may  be  spiritually  drawn  into  our  life 
and  character.  They  may  be  made  to  live  and  grow  in  us. 
This  is  a  normal  psychological  process,  to  which  neither 
science  nor  theology  need  take  exception.  I  believe  philos- 
ophers have  not  noticed  one  thing,  —  the  absorbent  character 
of  the  soul.  It  is  a  wonderfully  impressionable  substance. 
An  hour  in  the  company  of  the  saints  is  enough.  The  whole 
heart  is  revolutionized.  All  Scriptures  bear  testimony  to 
this  blessed  iufluence."  {Oriental  Christ,  by  P.  C.  Mozoom- 
dar,  p.  128.) 

"  Each  creature  holds  an  insular  point  in  space, 
Yet  what  man  stirs  a  finger,  breathes  a  sound ; 
But  all  the  multitudinous  beings  round 
In  all  the  countless  worlds,  with  time  and  place 
For  their  conditions,  down  to  the  central  base. 
Thrill,  haply,  in  vibration  and  rebound, 
In  full  antiphony,  by  a  common  grace "? 
I  think  this  sudden  joyance,  which  illumines 
A  child's  mouth  sleeping,  unaware,  may  run 
From  some  soul  newly  loosened  from  earth's  tombs. 
I  think,  this  passionate  sigh,  which  half  begim. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  89 

I  stifle  back,  may  reach  and  stir  the  plumes 
Of  God's  calm  angel  standing  in  the  sun." 

(Mrs.  Browning.) 

The  universal  spiritual  realm  of  light  and  life  is  not  reluc- 
tant to  impart,  but  is  waiting  to  give  of  its  exhaustless  stores 
as  soon  as  we  become  admissive  of  its  higher  life.  Jesus 
but  gives  voice  to  it  when  he  says,  "  I  have  many  things  to 
say  unto  you  ;  but  ye  are  not  able  to  bear  them  now.  How- 
beit,  when  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  will  guide  you 
into  all  the  truth."  (John  xvi :  12,  13.)  The  sole  condi- 
tion of  receiving  is  a  willingness  to  receive,  and  a  disposition 
beneficently  to  use.  Then  by  assuming  an  attitude  of  pas- 
sivity, or  mental  inertia,  toward  it,  we  may  absorb  it,  as  the 
earth  imbibes  the  light  and  heat  of  the  sun. 


90  THE   PRIMITITE   MIND-CURK. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

WHAT   IS    IT   TO    BE    SPIRITUAX  ?      AND    HOW   MAT    WE 


BECOME   SO 


There  is  often  in  the  minds  of  people  only  a  vague  idea  of 
what  it  is  to  be  spu'itual.  It  is  to  them  an  indefinite  something 
or  "  somewhat,"  which  they  are  feeling  round  in  the  dark  to 
find,  and  would  hardly  recognize  it,  even  if  they  accidentally 
laid  their  hands  upon  it.  It  is  among  rehgious  people 
usually  confounded  with  a  certain  devotional  frame  of  mind, 
and  sometimes  is  viewed  as  an  ecstatic  state  of  the  emotional 
nature.  But  these  may  exist,  and  the  subject  of  those  expe- 
riences may  not  have  attained  to  the  life  of  the  spirit.  They 
may  be  onl}'  the  bubbles,  painted  b}^  the  sun  with  the  hues  of 
the  rainbow,  and  floating  on  the  current  of  the  lower  soul. 
What  is  it  to  be  spiritual?  how  may  I  become  so?  are  ques- 
tions of  the  gravest  practical  importance  to  every  human 
being.  The  great  spiritual  philosopher  of  the  North  answers 
the  question  by  saying  that,  to  think  spiritually  is  to  free 
thought  from  the  limitations  of  time  and  space.  In  the 
Buddhistic  philosophy,  these  inquiries  are  answered  by  teach- 
ing that  to  be  spiritual  is  to  be  liberated  from  the  bondage 
of  matter.  In  the  Christianity  of  Jesus,  the  inquiry  is  met 
with  the  answer,  "Judge  not  according  to  ajjpeaj'ance  (oi/^i?, 
sight,  sense),  but  judge  rigJiteous  judgment,"  which  is  the 
Sanscrit  rita,  the  real  truth.  (John  vii :  24.)  This  freedom 
from  the  bondage  of  matter  and  sense  is  to  be  accomplished 
not  merely  by  ascetic  mortifications,  which  are  of  no  value 
except  so  far  as  they  give  us  self-control  in  the  fullest  sense 
of  the  word,  but  by  reaching  a  higher  mental  position,  the 


THE    PKIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  91 

standing-ground  of  faith,  from  which  material  things  are 
seen  and  felt  as  illusions  ;  that  is,  as  an  evanescent  and  de- 
ceptive appearance.  To  emancipate  the  mind  from  the  fet- 
ters of  sense,  is  to  be  free  from  disease  and  sin  in  the 
Platonic  and  New  Testament  signification  of  the  word.  This 
deliverance,  together  with  the  quenching  of  the  lower  desires, 
and  a  consecration  to  a  life  of  love  and  use,  is  the  Nirvana 
of  Buddhism,  and  the  kingdom  of  the  heavens  of  Jesus. 
This  can  never  be  reached  on  earth  (for  it  is  a  state  attainable 
here  and  now) ,  so  long  as  we  view  matter  as  the  most  real 
thing  in  the  universe.  With  this  view  as  a  confirmed  and 
governing  conviction,  we  can  no  more  become  spiritual  than 
we  can  sail  our  ships  of  commerce  in  the  air.  In  the  most 
exalted  moments  of  our  religious  life  and  feeling  we  are 
sometimes  borne  upward  above  the  plane  of  sense,  and 
earthl}^  things  seem  vanity  and  delusion,  "  an  empty  show." 
But  these  experiences  are  often  only  transient  moods,  mere 
flashes  of  spiritual  light  in  the  starless  darkness  above  and 
around  us,  instead  of  permanently  established  modes  of 
thinking.  In  these  ecstatic  visions,  which  have  no  unshaken 
basis  on  which  to  rest,  but  are  supported  only  by  our  ever- 
varying  emotions,  and  a  slender  devotional  framework,  we 
soon  again  descend  to  the  dead  level  of  the  plane  of  sense. 
Thus  we  alternately  rise  above  the  earth  and  sink  into  the 
dismal  swamp  of  materialism.  To  be  carried  up  by  a  mere 
devotional  frame  of  mind,  as  in  a  balloon  which  is  in  constant 
danger  of  collapsing,  is  a  very  different  position  from  that 
occupied  by  the  man  who  has  built  his  habitatiou  and  erected 
his  observatory  upon  the  summit  of  a  mountain,  which  is  an 
immovable  point  above  the  clouds,  where  the  life  of  the  heav- 
ens ever  meets  and  mingles  with  our  lower  conditions.  A 
philosophical  idealism,  of  which  Bishop  Berkeley  is  one  of  the 
best  exponents,  when  inwrought  into  the  very  texture  of  the 
mind,  furnishes  a  secure  and  permanent  foundation  for  a 
spiritual  mode  of  thinking.     It  is  the  spontaneous  philosophy 


92  THE    PRIMITXVE    MIND-CUKE. 

of  the  interior  man,  as  the  current  materiahstic  science  is  of 
the  psychical  or  natural  mind.  The  eagle  is  at  home  in  the 
lofty  atmospheric  heights  ;  the  earth-worm  is  equally  so  in 
the  mud  ;  and  both  are  useful  in  their  proper  place.  "  The 
great  lesson,"  says  Professor  Fiske,  "which  Berkeley  taught 
mankind  was,  that  what  we  call  material  phenomena  are 
really  the  products  of  consciousness  cooperating  with  some 
Unknown  Power  (not  material)  existing  beyond  conscious- 
ness. We  do  very  well  to  speak  of  '  matter '  in  common 
parlance,  but  all  that  the  word  really  means  is  a  group  of 
qualities  which  have  no  existence  apart  from  our  minds. 
Modern  philosophers  have  quite  generally  accepted  this  con- 
clusion, and  every  attempt  to  overthrow  Berkeley's  reasoning 
has  hitherto  resulted  in  complete  and  disastrous  failure.  .  . 
We  are  thus  led  to  a  view  of  things  not  very  unlike  the  views 
entertained  by  Spinoza  and  Berkeley.  We  are  led  to  the  in- 
ference that  what  we  call  the  material  universe  is  but  the 
manifestation  of  infinite  Deity  to  our  finite  minds.  Obvi- 
ously, on  this  view,  matter  —  the  only  thing  to  which  mate- 
rialists concede  real  existence  —  is  simply  an  orderly  phan- 
tasmagoria, and  God  and  the  soul,  which  the  materialists 
regard  as  the  fictions  of  the  imagination,  are  the  only 
conceptions  that  answer  to  real  existences."  (  Unseen  World, 
pp.  51,  52.) 

When  we  come  to  a  clear  perception  and  intuitive  convic- 
tion of  this,  a  new  and  higher  existence  has  dawned  upon 
us.  We  have  attained  to  the  all-satisfying  ti'uth,  and  are 
made  free.  (John  viii:32.)  In  that  day  the  interior  soul 
of  man  has  left  the  circumference  of  being,  with  all  its 
unsubstantial  shadows,  and  has  moved  up  an  immense  dis- 
tance toward  the  Central  Life  and  Supreme  Reality.  Such 
a  person  is  not  of  the  world,  even  as  Jesus  the  Christ  was 
not  of  the  world.  (John  xvii:  14-16.)  He  can  now  act 
upon  the  body  from  within,  as  God  perpetually  operates  in 
nature. 


THE    PRIMITH^E    MIND-CURE.  .  93 

It  is  the  doctrine  of  idealism  that  matter  exists  only  in 
mind.  This  was  the  doctrine  of  Berkeley,  Fitche,  Hegel,  and 
Emerson,  and  is  well  stated  by  Rev.  Arthur  CoUier,  a  con- 
temporar}'  of  Berkeley.  In  the  introduction  to  the  "  Clavis 
Universalis,"  he  observes:  "I  suppose  I  need  not  tell  my 
reader  that  when  I  affirm  that  all  matter  exists  in  mind,  after 
the  same  manner  that  body  exists  in  place,  I  mean  the  very 
same  as  if  I  had  said,  that  mind  is  the  place  of  body,  and  so 
its  place,  as  that  it  is  not  capable  of  existing  in  any  other 
place,  or  in  place  after  any  other  manner." 

Matter,  inclusive  of  the  human  bod}',  exists  for  us  only  in 
the  mind,  and  in  the  mind  on  the  plane  of  sense,  its  lowest 
range  of  action.  To  elevate  our  consciousness  above  that 
basement  story  of  our  being,  is  to  be  clear  of  it.  This  is 
faith.  We  would  ask  the  reader,  K  all  your  five  senses 
were  closed  or  were  quiescent,  would  not  matter  to  you  be 
deprived  of  all  its  properties,  and  would  there  remain  for  you 
any  external  world  or  any  physical  body  ?  The  same  is  true 
of  physical  disease.  It  is  the  office  of  faith,  as  defined  by 
Plato,  and  as  the  term  is  used  by  Jesus,  to  raise  us  to  a 
higher  plane  of  thought  and  perception,  where  disease  as  an 
external  entit}'  disappears.  I  would  not  affirm  that  to  attain 
to  this  spiritual  mode  of  thought  is  an  easy  acquirement,  nor 
would  I  affirm  that  it  is  next  to  an  impossible  achievement  to 
reach  it.  To  apprehend  it  as  theoretically  true  is  not  diffi- 
cult. And  most  of  us  remain  here  looking  up  rather  than 
gomrj  up.  To  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  if  they  ever  tliink 
of  it  at  all,  it  is  only  a  promised  land  seen  in  the  distance 
from  the  mountain  summit  of  our  highest  spiritual  experi- 
ences. The  humanity  of  Jesus  climbed  up  to  this  celestial 
height,  and  also  to  some  extent  that  of  Gautama,  the  Buddha. 
Jesus,  as  an  incarnation  of  the  universal  Christ,  represents 
the  whole  of  humanity,  and  hence  he  says,  "  If  I  be  lifted 
up,  I  will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  (John  xii :  32.)  In  the 
Grecian   Mysteries,    whose   original   aim   was   to   lead    the 


94  THE    PKIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE. 

initiate  from  a  mere  external  and  sensuous  plane  of  thought 
to  the  profoundest  spiritual  attainments,  the  fifth  and  last 
stage  was  denominated  friendship  and  interior  communion 
with  God.  This  was  the  holy  of  holies  of  their  spiritual 
temple,  in  which  man  reaches  that  summit  of  thought  where 
there  are  but  two  trutlis  in  the  universe,  the  All,  and  the 
nothing.  Christianity  aims  to  conduct  its  sincere  disciples 
to  the  same  goal,  not  by  a  mechanism  of  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies, nor  by  an  unenlightened  superstition  and  shallow  enthu- 
siasm, but  by  an  orderly  evolution  of  our  spiritual  nature. 
The  nearer  we  approach  it,  the  more  our  spiritual  power  and 
psychological  force  are  augmented.  It  has  been  univer- 
sality taught  in  the  ancient  spiritual  philosophy,  that  the 
inmost  soul  of  man  is  the  outcome,  or  offspring,  or  offshoot, 
of  the  Universal  Soul,  and  is  a  manifestation  under  finite 
limitations  of  the  first  creative  Principle.  If  this  is  so  (and 
it  is  intuitivel}'  true) ,  then  the  inner  nature  of  man  must  of 
necessity  share  in  a  degree  the  attributes  of  the  world-creating 
Power.  It  is  made  into  the  image  of  God,  and  so  far  is 
God.  "We  can  form  no  idea  of  God  that  is  not  to  some 
extent  realized  in  us.  The  idea  is  in  us  and  a  part  of  us. 
We  can  worship  no  God  that  is  not  bounded  by  our  concep- 
tions, and  we  can  conceive  of  nothing  in  Him  that  is  not 
actually  existent  in  the  spiritual  and  divine  powers  which 
are  either  active  or  latent  in  us.  The  highest  image  we 
can  form  of  Him  is  only  what  we  are  capable  of  becoming. 
I  would  not  affirm  tliat  this  is  all  of  God,  but  only  all  that 
we  can  know  of  Him.  Just  so  far  as  we  know  God,  we 
become  God,  and  can  to  the  same  extent  do  divine  works. 

As  all  matter  exists  only  in  mind,  it  follows  that  all  modi- 
fications of  the  mind  effect  changes  in  that  appearance  which 
we  call  matter.  This  is  an  invariable  law.  The  same  object 
is  never  seen  twice  alike ;  as,  for  example,  the  ocean,  the 
mountains,  or  the  forest.  Matter  is  an  illusion  or  deceptive 
appearance  that  is  perpetually  changing  with  our  ever-vary- 


THE    PKIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  95 

ing  mental  states.  It  is  a  sublime  truth  of  the  old  phi- 
losophy, that  the  world  is  created  through  man,  and  every- 
thing in  it  corresponds  to  something  in  man.  There  is  a 
close  relationship  between  the  life  of  the  world  and  the  life 
of  man.  "We  impress  our  character  on  our  surroundings,  or, 
to  use  a  fashionable  word,  our  environment.  The  latter  does 
not  make  us,  but  we  give  character  to  it.  It  is  said  that 
when  man  fell,  or  descended  from  spirit  to  sense,  the  ground 
Wfis  cursed  for  his  sake.     So  Milton  says  : 

"  Earth  felt  the  wound,  and  nature  sighing  through  all 
Her  works,  gave  signs  of  woe  that  all  was  lost." 

As  life  is  developed,  the  world  is  seen  to  be  more  and 
more.  It  is  fair  to  suppose  that  the  highest  animal  does 
not  see  as  much  in  the  world  as  we  see.  Take  an  idiot, 
and  suppose  him  to  rise  in  intellect  until  he  becomes  a 
sage ;  the  earth  keeps  even  pace  with  him.  Suppose  the 
sage  gradually  to  sink  into  idiocy ;  the  earth  descends 
with  him,  becoming  less  and  less,  until  it  disappears. 
Hence  the  remark,  so  often  made,  that  we  shall  die,  but 
the  world  will  live  on,  is  not  strictly  true.  The  real  truth 
is,  the  world  will  die,  or  become  evanescent  to  our  exter- 
nal senses,  that  is,  the  world  that  is  in  us,  but  we  shall  con- 
tinue to  live  in  a  higher  world,  that  goes  forth  from  us, 
and  through  us.  The  same  law  holds  good  in  regard  to  the 
relation  of  mind  and  bod}-.  The  body  is  but  a  part  of  the 
external  world,  and  both  are  to  us  what  we  think  and  believe 
them  to  be. 

If  we  glance  at  our  very  ancient  diagram,  which  symboli- 
cally represents  the  triune  nature  of  man,  the  first  triangle 
represents  the  spirit,  as  a  personal  limitation  of  the  grand 
unity  of  spirit,  and  with  its  point  downwards,  its  tendency 
to  descend.  It  is  masculine  or  active.  The  lower  triangle 
represents  the  animal  soul,  which  is  considered  in  its  relation 
to  spirit  as  feminine  or  reactive,  and  in  nearly  all  languages 


96  THE   PRIMITIVE    MIND -CUKE. 

the  word  is  feminine  in  form,  as  the  Greek  psyche,  and  the 
Latin  anima.  With  the  point  upward  it  represents  the  ten- 
dency inherent  in  its  nature,  to  ascend  to  meet  the  spirit. 
The  union  of  the  two,  as  in  the  two  interlaced  triangles,  is 
significant  of  the  highest  condition  of  man  on  earth,  the  con- 
junction of  the  soul  and  spirit  to  form  the  interior  man.  The 
two  triangles  thus  interlaced,  are,  according  to  Jacob 
Behmen,  the  highest  religious  symbol.  It  signifies  not  only 
the  union  of  the  spirit  and  soul,  but  also  of  God  and  man. 
The  lower  triangle,  with  its  point  upward,  is  aspiration, 
which  meets  a  response  in  inspiration  represented  by  the 
upper  triangle  with  its  point  downward.  The  two  together 
are  the  "Blazing  Star,"  the  "Star  in  the  East,"  of  the 
Magi,  whose  significance  was  fully  realized  in  Jesus.  The}' 
represent  the  true  ideal  state,  the  "  celestial-natural"  condi- 
tion, as  it  was  denominated  by  Swedenborg,  the  true  life  oj 
faith,  in  which  the  higher  light  of  the  spirit  perpetually  cor- 
rects the  illusions  or  deceptive  appearances  of  the  sensis. 
Faith  is  not  merely  an  intellectual  state,  but  intellect  in 
union  with  feeling,  which  is  life, — life  on  a  higher  plane  of 
thought.  Belief  and  life,  in  their  etymological  sense,  seem 
to  be  the  same.  To  believe  is  to  live,  as  the  first  syllable  is 
only  intensive,  and  the  latter  from  the  Danish  lever,  the 
German  lehen,  the  Dutch  lieven,  all  meaning  life  or  to  live. 
To  believe  is  a  movement  of  our  interior  life  towards  the 
state  which  is  the  object  of  desire  and  of  faith.  To  believe 
that  we  are  well  or  are  becoming  so,  turns  the  current  of  our 
life  and  of  the  Universal  Life  in  that  direction.  To  believe 
the  truths  of  the  spirit  in  opposition  to  the  illusions  of  sense, 
is  salvation  in  the  complete  signification  of  the  word.  These 
truths  are  the  "  blood  of  the  Lamb,"  by  which  we  overcome. 
(Rev.  xii:  11.)  It  was  a  peculiarity  of  the  old  philosophy, 
that  they  expressed  and  preserved  the  highest  truths  under 
the  covering  of  appropriate  symbols.  In  the  original  zodiac, 
which  signifies  the  circle  or  cycle  of  life,  there  were  only  ten 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND -CURE.  97 

signs,  answering  to  the  ten  Sepliiroth  or  emanations  of  the 
Kabala.  The  first  was  Aries  the  Lamb,  and  this  answers  to 
the  Chi-ist  of  Paul,  the  Universal  Spirit.  By  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb  is  thci-efore  signified  the  living  truths  of  the  spirit, 
which  is  a  meaning  as  fixed  in  the  science  of  correspondence 
as  the  definitions  of  geometry.  In  this  blood,  which  is  per- 
petually shed  for  the  many,  we  ma}-  wash  our  robes  and 
make  them  white.  It  is  this,  and  this  alone,  which  can  save 
the  soul  from  its  illusions,  its  sin,  and  disease.  To  save  a 
man  from  bodily  disease,  without  an  effort  to  save  the  soul, 
is  to  act  like  a  fireman  who  should  rush  into  a  buniing  build- 
ing to  rescue  a  sleeping  inmate,  and  should  only  seize  his 
clothes,  and  leave  the  man  as  he  was.  Not  so  did  Jesus  the 
Christ,  who  illustrates  in  his  beneficent  life  the  truth  that 
the  highest  function  of  a  healer  is  to  be  a  doctor  or  teacher. 
And  the  highest  and  most  saving  truths  we  can  dispense,  are 
not  those  that  we  learn  from  books  and  teachers,  but  are  the 
clear  shining  of  the  "  Star  in  the  East"  within  us.  The 
Arabian  alchemist,  Abipili,  utters  these  golden  words:  "  I 
admonish  thee,  whoever  thou  art,  that  desirest  to  dive  into 
the  inmost  parts  of  nature  ;  if  that  thou  seekest  thou  findest 
not  within  thee,  thou  wilt  never  find  it  ivithout  thee."  When 
we  act  mentally  upon  an  invalid  or  upon  ourselves  from  the 
spiritual  world  within  us,  we  act  iu  concert  with  the  intelli- 
gent forces  that  control  nature,  and  can  determine  them  to 
the  healing  of  disease,  or  at  least  accelerate  their  action.  It 
is  the  divine  order  that  spirit  should  govern  matter ;  or,  as 
it  was  expressed  in  the  ancient  metaphysical  science,  that 
the  heavens  should  rule.     (Dan.  iv  :  26.) 

The  person  who  desires  to  become  spiritual  and  acquire 
the  power  to  cure  disease  by  mental  forces,  in  order  to  make 
money  and  become  rich,  has  parted  company  with  Jesus, 
and  lost  his  way  at  the  very  commencement  of  his  journey. 
He  has  switched  off  upon  a  side-track,  and  has  accidentally 
stepped  on  board  a  freight  train  that  is  bound  in  the  opposite 


98  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND -CURE. 

direction,  and  lias  missed  the  passenger  car  which  has  moved 
on  due  East.  He  who  desires  to  make  money  out  of  spirit- 
ual science,  is  like  the  man  who  vainly  sighs  for  the  wings 
of  a  dove  that  he  might  use  them  in  wading  in  the  mud. 
The  wings  of  the  soul  of  which  Plato  speaks  are  not  given 
for  that  use.  The  truly  spiritual  man  or  mind  does  not 
desire  to  sell  a  minimum  of  spiritual  truth  for  a  maximum 
price  in  money ;  but  rather  imparts  to  all  who  will  receive 
without  money  and  without  price.  Spiritual  gifts,  among 
which  is  the  gift  of  healing,  God  has  never  thrown  into  the 
markets  of  the  world.  The  first  recorded  attempt  to  buy 
a  spiritual  gift  was  a  disastrous  failure,  and  the  speculator 
in  heavenly  things  purchased  to  himself  only  a  severe  re- 
buke. (Acts  viii :  20.)  To  bringdown  the  celestial  life  of 
the  spirit  into  the  disgusting  scramble  for  wealth,  is  like 
inviting  our  angelic  visitors  to  aid  us  in  ditching  our  swamp. 
The  most  spiritual  men  the  world  has  ever  held,  including 
Jesus,  have  been  poor,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word. 
But  while  poor  in  that  sense,  they  possess  all  things.  They 
may  have  no  legal  title  to  the  land,  but  they  own  the  whole 
landscape.  They  have  in  themselves  as  an  everlasting  in- 
heritance all  that  the  goodly  things  of  earth  spiritually 
signify  and  represent.  They  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God 
and  its  righteousness  (right  thinking),  and  all  other  things 
are  thrown  in,  like  the  wrapping  paper  of  the  merchant. 
(Mat.  vi:33.)  Gold  and  silver  are  symbols  of  celestial 
good  and  truth.  Having  in  ourselves  the  latter  we  possess 
all  that  is  of  value  in  the  former.  This  is  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  the  Christ,  and  is  Christian  science  and  true  meta- 
physics. This  word  was  introduced  into  philosophy  by 
Aristotle,  and  is  composed  of  two  Greek  words  which  signify 
after  physics.  In  a  system  of  education,  it  was  supposed 
that  the  study  of  physics,  or  of  visible  nature,  came  first, 
and  the  study  of  the  spiritual  side  of  nature  and  of  the  mind 
came  last,  or,  as  Paul  expresses  it,  first  that  which  is  natural 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MINW-CTJKE.  9b 

or  psychical,  then  that  which  is  spiritual.  (I  Cor.  xv:46,) 
To  seek  the  achievement  of  spiritual  development,  in  order 
to  emplo}'  our  powers  in  making  money,  is  a  total  perversion 
of  the  divine  order  of  life,  and  such  a  person  becomes 
spiritually  blind  by  an  immutable  law  of  our  being.  If  we 
are  now  in  the  full  light  of  the  noonday  sun,  when  the  earth 
is  fully  inverted  and  we  with  it,  we  find  ourselves  in  mid- 
night darkness.  So  the  spirit  of  man,  which  is  full  to  over- 
flowing of  an  iiTepressible  love  and  good  will  to  all  men,  is 
the  light  side.  The  selfish  animal  soul  is  the  dark  side. 
We  must  see  to  it  that  our  microcosm,  or  little  world,  does 
not  turn  bottom  side  up,  but  ever  remain  in  its  true  position. 

BE  TRUE. 

"  Thou  must  be  true  thyself, 

If  thou  the  truth  wouldst  teach; 
Thy  soul  must  overflow,  if  thou 

Another's  soul  wouldst  reach;  — 
It  needs  the  overflow  of  heart 

To  give  the  lips  full  speech. 

"Think  truly,  and  thy  thoughts 

Will  the  world's  famine  feed ; 
Speak  truly,  and  each  word  of  thine 

"Will  he  a  fruitful  seed ; 
Live  truly,  and  thy  life  will  be 

A  great  and  noble  creed." 


100  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SPIRITUAL   TRUTH   THE    BEST   REMEDY    FOR   DISEASE. 

As  disease  exists  only  on  the  mental  plane  of  sense,  as 
we  have  before  shown,  and  this  is  the  region  in  us  which  is 
subject  to  illusions  and  deceptive  appearances,  and  as  the 
disease  itself  for  which  we  are  often  called  to  administer  a 
remedy  is  in  many  cases  only  a  sensuous  seeming,  so  spirit- 
ual truth,  which  is  only  another  name  for  faith,  is  the  most 
efficient  remedy  in  nature.  It  is  a  specific  having  a  divine 
sanative  virtue  and  potency  in  it.  This  should  never  be 
forgotten.  Spiritual  truth  expresses  the  reality  of  things,  or 
that  which  is,  and  when  vocally  expressed,  or  silently  sug- 
gested and  by  a  thought  impulse  projected  into  the  mind  of 
an  invalid,  is  an  infallible  antidote  to  that  sin  (or  error,  or 
false  belief) ,  which  is  the  underlying  cause  of  disease,  which 
is  often  unreal  and  in  itself  no-thing.  In  the  case  of  a  given 
disease,  we  are  first  to  find  out  what  is  false  and  um-eal  in 
regard  to  it  in  the  mind  of  the  patient,  and  all  this  counts 
for  nothing.  It  is  a  minus  quantity.  Subtract  it  from  the 
diagnosis,  and  there  is  often  no  remainder  —  nothing  which 
amounts  to  a  concrete  realitj'.  Physicians  frequently  feel 
this,  but  may  deem  it  inexpedient  to  say  so.  To  ascertain 
what  a  so-called  nervous  patient  thinks  about  his  own  case, 
is  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  best  statement  of  the  sensuous 
delusions  which  are  to  be  corrected.  This  he  is  only  too 
willing  to  give  us,  and  to  pour  it  into  the  listening  ear  of 
every  visitor.  His  statement  of  his  condition  is  the  one  to 
be  combated,  and  his  confirmed  ideas  are  to  be  expunged 
from  his  mind  —  not  by  reasoning  merely,   for  that  of*.^n 


THE    PUIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE.  101 

only  confirms  him  in  them.  His  reason  (so  called)  is  the 
head  of  the  serpent,  that  the  seed  of  the  woman,  or  the 
truths  of  wisdom,  is  to  crush.  Having  heard  his  statement 
of  the  case,  he  should  be  instructed  ever  after  to  keep  silent, 
as  it  is  a  law  of  our  being,  that  to  express  a  feeling  in  words 
gives  intensity  and  fixedness  to  it.  "When  I  say  "  I  am 
sick,"  my  thought  or  existence  is  run  into  a  different  mould, 
from  what  it  is  when  I  say  "  I  am  well." 

How  a  change  in  our  mode  of  thought  reaches  the  body 
through  an  intermediate  form,  organism,  or  inedium,  is  told  us 
by  Swedenborg,  which  we  quote  not  as  an  authority,  but  as  an 
illustration.  He  says  :  "There  was  a  philosopher  who  ranked 
among  the  more  celebrated  and  sane,  who  died  some  years 
ago,  with  whom  I  discoursed  concerning  the  degrees  of  life, 
and  that  one  form  is  more  interior  than  another,  but  that  one 
exists  and  subsists  from  another ;  also  that  when  an  inferior 
or  exterior  form  is  dissolved,  the  superior  or  inferior  form  still 
lives.  It  was  further  said  that  all  operations  of  the  mind  are 
variations  of  the  form ;  in  the  purer  substances  these  varia- 
tions are  in  such  perfection  that  they  cannot  be  described ; 
and  that  the  ideas  of  thought  are  nothing  else  ;  and  that  these 
variations  exist  accoi'ding  to  changes  of  the  state  of  the  affec- 
tions. How  the  most  perfect  variations  are  given  in  the 
purer  forms  may  be  concluded  from  the  lungs,  which  fold 
themselves  variously,  and  vary  their  forms  according  to  every 
expression  of  speech,  every  note  of  a  tune,  every  motion  of 
the  body,  and  according  to  every  state  of  thought  and  affec- 
tion; what  then  must  be  the  case  with  interior  things  which, 
in  comparison  with  so  large  an  organ,  are  in  the  most  perfect 
state?  The  philosopher  confirmed  what  was  said,  and  de- 
clared that  such  things  had  been  known  to  him  when  he  lived 
in  the  world,  and  that  the  world  should  apply  philosophical 
things  to  such  uses,  and  should  not  be  intent  on  bare  forms 
of  expression,  and  on  disputes  about  them,  and  thus  labor  in 
the  dust."     {Arcana  Celestia,  632G.) 


102  THE    PUIMXTIVE    MIND-CURE. 

According  to  this  philosophy,  when  expressed  more  clearly, 
a  change  of  thought  —  as  an  act  of  faith,  or  imagination,  or 
any  modification  of  the  mind,  on  its  higher  plane  —  adjusts 
the  form  of  the  intellectual  soul  into  its  representative  image, 
and  this  latter  moulds  the  animal  soul-principle  and  psychical 
body  into  its  expression,  and  tkrough  this  it  passes  outward 
to  the  physical  organism.  So  a  morbid  and  fixed  idea  forms 
the  lower  soul  into  its  image,  and  this  by  a  law  of  corre- 
spondence changes  the  outward  body  into  a  condition  that 
expresses  the  idea  on  a  material  plane.  Here  it  can  go  no 
further,  as  it  has  reached  the  outside  boundarj-  of  existence. 
The  term  "  bod}',"  in  its  radical  sense,  signifies  that  which  is 
fixed  or  set.  Hence  the  human  body,  in  its  diflfereut  condi- 
tions, is  always  only  the  fixedness  of  an  idea.  This  is  also 
true  of  all  matter,  as  all  the  endless  variety  of  plants.  They 
are  divine  ideas  printed  in  the  book  of  nature  by  the  demi- 
urgic intellect.  So  an  act  of  faith,  or  a  perception  of  spirit- 
ual truth,  by  supplanting  the  idea  of  disease,  passes  outward 
into  a  psychical  or  soul  manifestation,  and  finally  is  translated 
into  a  bodily  expression.  Since  every  idea  of  the  mind  forms 
the  soul  and  interior  body,  which  are  the  inward  man,  into 
its  expression,  it  has  been  aflSrmed,  and  is  eternally  true, 
that  in  the  other  life,  as  we  call  it,  the  whole  quality  of  a 
man  is  exquisitely  perceived  from  a  single  idea  of  his  thought, 
for  every  idea  is  an  image  of  the  man.  {Arcana  Celestia, 
301.)  And  by  those  whose  inner  vision  is  unveiled,  and  who 
have  emancipated  the  intellectual  soul  from  the  body,  the 
same  can  be  seen  now.  When  the  Christ  as  the  primal  Light 
and  Life  comes  to  a  man,  —  and  he  may  come  every  day  and 
not  merely  at  the  end  of  the  world  to  us,  —  the  veil  of  sense 
is  removed. 

"  He  comes  from  thickest  fihns  of  vice, 

To  clear  the  mental  ray, 
And  on  the  orbs  oppressed  with  night. 

To  pour  celestial  day." 


THE    rRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  103 

If  we  have  a  man's  ruling  idea  and  his  central  love,  we 
have  the  whole  man,  all  that  he  is  or  can  be  for  the  time 
being  ;  for  all  his  thoughts  and  feelings  revolve  around  these, 
and  never  break  entirely  loose  from  their  orbit.  Hence  Emer- 
son very  truly  says,  "  The  key  to  every  man  is  his  thought. 
Sturdy  and  defying  though  he  look,  he  has  a  helm  which  he 
obeys,  which  is  the  idea  after  which  all  his  facts  are  classified. 
He  can  only  be  reformed  by  showing  him  a  new  idea  which 
commands  his  own."  {Essays,  First  Series,  p.  241.)  In 
having  your  picture  taken,  the  artist  always  recommends  you 
to  have  some  pleasant  thought  in  your  mind,  because  this 
gives  you  the  best  expression.  But  thought  affects  not  only 
the  face,  but  the  whole  body.  Would  it  not  be  well  for  some 
nervous  invalids  to  sit  for  their  picture  several  times  a  day, 
until  they  become  themselves  the  fixed  and  finished  picture 
of  their  pleasant  thought?  "Every  distinct  idea  of  man, 
and  every  particular  affection,  is  an  image  and  effigy  of  him, 
even  as  to  its  minutest  fraction ;  that  is,  there  is  something 
therein  which  partakes,  in  a  nearer  or  remote  degree,  of  all 
his  intellect  and  of  all  his  will  "  (or  love) .  {Heavenly  Secrets, 
803.)  A  man's  ruling  idea,  to  the  inner  eye,  is  a  spiritual 
image  of  the  real  man,  far  more  so  than  our  picture  taken  by 
the  photographic  artist  is  a  representation  of  ourselves.  For 
in  the  one  there  is  life,  while  the  other  is  but  an  inanimate 
shadow.  But  we  must  never  lose  sight  of  this  deep  law  of 
our  being,  tJiat  all  ideas  have  an  inherent  tendency  to  actualize 
or  externalize  themselves  in  the  corporeal  organism. 

The  science  of  modern  times  has  never  appreciated  the 
power  of  intense  thought  directed  to  a  person  with  a  benefi- 
cent end  or  healing  intention.  Medical  science  admits  the 
influence  of  the  imagination  of  a  patient  upon  himself,  but 
wholly  ignores  the  influence  of  our  imagination  and  faith 
upon  others,  which  is  by  no  means  an  unimportant  matter. 
The  mind  can  thus  act  at  any  distance.  In  the  realm  of 
sjnrit,  thought  is  a  movement  (so  to  speak)  of  the  spirit,  a 


104  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

transportation  or  extension  of  the  spirit,  a  being  "carried 
away  in  the  spirit "  to  the  place  or  person  that  is  the  object 
of  thought.  Our  inner  being  accompanies  its  thought,  so 
that  wherever  the  thought  is,  there  the  spmt  is,  and  there  it 
can  act ;  for  it  is  the  spirit  that  thinks,  and  its  thought  is  in- 
separable from  it.  This  fact  is  recognized  by  Charlotte  Brontd, 
and  illustrated  in  her  novel  of  "Jane  Eyre."  She  makes 
her  heroine  hear  the  voice  of  her  lover,  calling  her  name, 
though  they  were  far  apart  in  space  ;  and  she  was  so  strongly 
impressed  with  its  reality  that  she  leaves  all  and  goes  to  him, 
finds  him  blind  and  suffering,  and  needing  her  love  and 
sympathy,  and  really  calling  her  in  spirit.  Such  a  phenom- 
enon is  not  wholly  a  fiction,  and  much  less  a  miracle.  It 
comes  within  the  domain  of  the  laws  of  the  mind.  Such 
mental  telegraphy  is  an  every-day  occurrence  among  the  true 
adepts  of  spiritual  philosophy. 

The  proclamation  of  the  spiritual  truth,  in  regard  to  a  given 
malady,  will  have  more  effect  in  removing  its  cause  and  weak- 
ening its  hold,  than  the  whole  list  of  drugs  described  in  the 
United  States  Dispensatory.  Few  diseases  can  long  with- 
stand the  light  of  truth,  but  will  silently  disappear  before  it 
like  birds  of  night  at  the  approach  of  day,  or  like  the  mists 
of  the  morning  before  the  rising  sun.  The  man  who  habit- 
ually occupies  the  idealistic  and  spiritual  plane  of  thought, 
and  can  speak  with  confidence  from  that  commanding  posi- 
tion, can  say  with  Jesus,  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you 
are  spu-it  and  are  life."  (John  vi :  63.)  And  his  utter- 
ances or  tacit  affirmations  addi-essed  to  the  patient  will  have 
a  sanative  and  redeeming  potency  far  beyond  the  prescrip- 
tions of  the  superficial  learning  of  the  medical  schools,  though 
I  would  not  undervalue  a  true  medical  science. 

The  advantage  we  gain  in  speaking  to  a  patient  in  thought 
rather  than  by  vocal  utterance,  is  that  in  the  former  case 
we  are  met  by  no  opposition  of  will,  no  tendency  to  question 
and  raise  objections,  and  what  we  thus  say  to  him  reaches 


THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  105 

the  interior  degree  of  his  being,  whereas  a  verbal  utterance 
may  penetrate  no  further  than  the  external  plane  of  hia 
mind,  or  even  lodge  in  the  external  ear.  The  arrow  of  truth 
falls  into  the  morass,  and  does  not  pass  to  the  flowery  fields 
bej'ond.  When  we  speak  to  a  patient  in  thought  and  in 
silent  prayer,  we  touch  the  hidden  spring  of  his  Hfe  if  he  is 
in  a  condition  of  receptivity,  and  thus  filter  the  stream  at  its 
fountain.  We  can  thus  act  upon  him  independent  of  distance 
and  all  material  limitations  and  restraints,  if  we  have  learned 
to  speak  the  inner  language.  In  the  system  of  Jesus,  as  sin, 
in  the  sense  of  an  error  or  fallacious  idea  (and  not  merely 
what  we  call  wickedness,  for  in  the  original  that  is  expressed 
by  another  word) ,  in  the  mind,  was  recognized  as  the  cause 
of  disease  and  as  constituting  its  spiritual  essence,  so  truth 
was  deemed  to  possess  the  highest  therapeutic  efficacy. 
This  is  to  be  spoken  in  love,  according  to  the  direction  of 
Paul  (Eph.  iv :  15),  and  in  the  same  spirit  we  should  tena- 
ciously adhere  to  it.  Such  truth  is  not  an  empty  abstraction 
or  '■'airy  nothingness,"  but  the  most  vitally  real  and  poten- 
tial thing  in  the  universe.  It  inherits  God's  loving  omnipo- 
tence, from  whom  it  is  perpetually  born.  All  forces  are 
spiritual,  and  a  spiritual  truth  is  a  divine  force.  As  Paul 
asserts,  "  we  can  do  nothing  against  the  truth."  (II  Cor. 
xiii :  8.)  That  will  hold  its  own  against  all  odds,  and  in  the 
end  have  everything  its  own  way.  Single-handed  and  alone, 
it  is  more  than  a  match  in  its  silent  omnipotence  against  a 
noisy  mob  of  delusions.  In  dispensing  truth  as  a  curative 
agency  we  are  not  dealing  in  empty  abstractions  (for  truth 
is  never  sundered  from  the  Divine  Mind),  nor  in  the  infini- 
tesimal triturations  of  matter,  but  in  the  diviuest  and  most 
substantial  force  in  the  whole  realm  of  nature. 

There  is  a  marvellous  power  in  a  living  thought,  especially 
when  it  proceeds  from  the  theocentric  region  of  our  being ; 
and  this  power  is  becoming  recognized  by  science.  Says 
J.  II.  Stirling  (the  translator  and  commentator  of  Hegel)  in 


106  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

his  triumphant  reply  to  Huxley's  "  Physical  Basis  of  Life," 
"  Throughout  the  entire  universe  thought  is  the  controlling 
sovereign,  nor  does  matter  anywhere  refuse  its  aUegiance.  So 
it  is  in  thought  too  that  man  has  his  patent  of  nobility,  and 
beheves  that  he  is  created  in  the  image  of  God,  and  himself 
a  freeman  of  infinitude."  (Half  Hours  with  Modern  Scien- 
tists, p.  125.)  A  friend  of  ours,  a  physician  of  Boston,  in  a 
letter,  writes,  "  It  occurred  to  me  a  short  time  since  that  we 
should  think  well  of  all,  and  not  ill  of  any,  because  the 
thought  of  another  has  some  power  to  make  him  what  we 
think  him,  not  only  physically  but  morally.  Momentous 
realities  are  involved  in  our  thoughts.  How  little  of  such 
realities  are  realized  by  the  majority." 

He  who  has  attained  to  the  power  of  spiritual  thought  has 
been  anointed  and  crowned  a  king.  This  is  the  Kabalistic 
"  crown  of  life."  The  ruling  idea  of  the  minds  of  such  men 
as  Appolonius  of  Tyana,  who  was,  I  think,  nearly  contempo- 
rary with  Jesus,  was  the  rightful  sovereignty  of  the  spirit, 
the  supreme  and  real  man,  over  all  below  it  in  the  scale  of 
life.  (Gen.  i:  26-28.)  An  intelligent  apprehension  of  this 
truth,  and  the  feeling  of  it  gave  him  his  marvellous  power,  as 
it  did  also  to  Pythagoras  and  to  Jesus.  Such  men  are  not 
mere  spectators  of  natux'e,  mere  lookers  on,  but  control  it 
and  make  it  subservient  to  their  will.  Jesus  was  a  king 
(John  xviii :  36-38) ,  and  so  is  every  man  in  the  unseen 
depths  of  his  spirit,  wherein  lies  the  image  or  idea  of  God. 
But  it  is  of  little  use  to  be  a  king  and  not  know  it.  To  have 
the  sovereign  power  of  spirit,  and  not  to  know  it  or  be  con- 
scious of  it,  is  all  the  same  as  not  to  have  it.  And  we  can 
know  it  only  by  faith,  which  is  "  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen." 

On  the  sovereign  power  of  the  mind,  Dr.  Nichols,  a  distin- 
guished chemist,  very  truly  and  eloquently  says,  "  The  mind 
of  man  is  the  great  overpowering  force  in  the  world,  a  prin- 
ciple   dominating   everything.     No   form   of  energy   acting 


TIIK    I'lUMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  107 

under  law  has  escaped  its  conu'ol,  no  physical  forces  have 
become  its  master ;  they  all  combined  bow  to  its  behests  and 
become  its  servants.  It  must  be  a  supernatural  principle,  a 
distinct  creation,  a  divine  essence,  a  mighty  force,  standing 
apart,  and  designed  to  stand  apart,  from  all  the  other  forces 
of  nature."  {]Vhe7ice  ?  What?  and  WJiere?  By  James  R. 
Nichols,  M.D.,  p.  12.) 

The  inquiry  will  be  raised,  ' '  Of  what  use  is  it  to  think  the 
real  truth  of  a  person  unless  he  is  influenced  to  think  the 
same  of  himself?  "  In  answer  to  this,  let  it  be  observed  that 
thought  spontaneously  takes  a  fixed  form  in  an  idea,  which 
is  a  thing  of  life.  When  we  think  of  a  patient  near  or  far 
off  in  space,  if  we  think  spiritually  or  in  a  state  of  abstraction 
from  the  body,  and  hold  steadfastly  to  our  thought  of  him,  it 
will  be  transferred  to  him  if  he  is  receptive,  and  will  assume 
form  in  his  mind  as  an  idea  the  same  as  in  ours.  If  we 
recognize  the  truth  that  his  spiritual  and  real  self,  the  immor- 
tal Ego,  is  not  sick  or  unhappy,  the  thought  will  take  form 
in  his  mind  as  an  idea  and  belief  and  this  makes  it  to  him  a 
reality  so  long  as  the  idea  and  belief  remain.  Swedeuborg 
affirms  that  when  an  angel  of  heaven  determines  his  sight, 
that  is,  his  thought,  to  another,  his  interiors  are  transferred 
and  communicated  to  him  according  to  his  state  of  receptiv- 
ity. (Heavenly  Secrets,  10,130.)  The  same  is  true  of  our 
spirit,  or  of  man  as  a  spirit.  ^VTien  we  think  of  a  person  the 
real  truth  in  regard  to  him,  that  the  real  self  is  not  invaded 
by  disease,  and  think  this  with  a  feeling  of  its  truth  and  with  a 
beneficent  desire  to  do  him  good,  our  "  interiors"  are  trans- 
ferred to  him  tlu-ough  the  medium  of  the  universal  mind,  and 
he  thinks  from  us,  but  all  the  time  not  knowing  otherwise 
than  that  he  thinks  wholly  from  himself.  The  thought  will 
arise  in  him,  "  I  am  not  sick."  He  is,  in  a  certain  true 
sense,  inspired  by  us,  and  caused  to  think  and  feel  above 
his  ordinary  level.  This  supplies  the  missing  link  that  con- 
nects our  thinl  ing  with  the  mind  of  the  patient,  which  we 


108  TUB    PRIiUTIVE    MIND-CUKE. 

shall  more  fully  illustrate  in  our  instruction  regarding  the 
universal  life-principle.  "We  often  witness  thi'ough  the  oper- 
ation of  this  occult  law  two  or  more  persons  in  the  same 
room  who  are  found  to  have  been  thinking  of  the  same  object 
or  person  at  one  and  the  same  time.  So  all  the  great  dis- 
coveries and  inventions  have  been  made  by  men  in  different 
parts  of  the  world  at  about  the  same  time.  Our  thoughts 
and  ideas  are  recorded  on  the  imperishable  tablet  of  the 
universal  intellect,  and  through  this  become  contagious. 
This  is  a  principle  of  the  Hermetic  philosophy,  which  has 
more  influence  on  human  hfe  and  its  manifestations  than  has 
been  recognized  by  modern  science. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  powers  of  the  soul  increase  in 
proportion  as  it  is  freed  fx'om  the  influence  of  the  body.  The 
intermediate  or  intellectual  soul  can  be  aS"ected  either  by  the 
higher  spu'it  or  by  the  lower  animal  soul  and  the  body,  as  was 
taught  by  Plato.  And  to  teach  the  initiate  how  to  liberate  the 
soul  from  the  body  and  set  it  free  from  the  distorting  influence 
of  the  senses  was  one  of  the  aims  of  the  esoteric  science  of 
the  ancients,  —  a  subject  to  which  we  shall  recur  in  our  next 
lesson.  The  potency  of  the  will  and  the  imagination  in  a 
state  of  ecstasy  was  an  idea  familiar  to  the  old  occult  philos- 
ophy, and  is  mentioned  by  Paracelsus  and  Van  Helmont,  the 
fathers  of  modern  magnetic  science.  But  the  state  which 
was  called  by  the  Neo-Platonists  ecstasy  is  not  necessarily 
an  abnormal  one,  but  is  in  reality  only  the  intellectual  soul 
acting  independent  of  the  body.  There  are  persons  who  can 
enter  into  this  condition  at  wiU,  and  act  from  a  higher  or 
interior  degree  of  the  mind,  and  thus  be  "endued  with 
power  from  on  high." 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIKD-CUEE.  109 


CHAPTER  Xin. 

ON  THE  TRIUNE  NATURE  OF  IIAN,  AND  THE  FREEINO  THE 
SOUL  FROM  THE  BODY. 

The  doctrine  of  the  triune  nature  of  man  is  one  of  the 
oldest  doctrines  of  philosophy,  and  is  absolutely  fundamental 
in  a  true  spiritual  science.  It  was  an  occult  doctrine,  and 
was  revealed  in  the  fuUest  degree  only  to  the  highest  initi- 
ates, or  the  "  perfect,"  as  they  are  called  by  the  apostle  Paul. 
In  the  Kabala  man  is  viewed  under  the  three  divisions,  or 
distinct  regions,  of  mental  being,  named  spirit,  soul  (ruach), 
and  crude  spirit  (nephesh).  The  latter  is  the  "  serpent"  of 
Genesis,  and  designates  the  principle  of  sense,  and  the  mere 
animal  mind  or  man.  The  body  was  very  properly  viewed 
as  no  part  of  man,  as  all  its  elements  belong  to  the  so-called 
external  world.  Man  is  identical  with  mind,  as  the  term  is 
from  a  Sanscrit  word  meaning  to  think.  Man  is  mind  ;  and 
each  degree  of  the  mind  is  man  as  he  thinks  and  acts  on 
either  of  thi-ee  discrete  planes  of  being. 

In  the  Platonic  philosophy,  —  which  professedly  was  bor- 
rowed from  the  arcane  science  and  religion  of  India,  Egypt, 
and  the  East,  —  man,  or  mind,  is  viewed  under  the  three 
degrees  of  pneuma  (spirit),  psyche  (soul),  and  tJmmos  (ani- 
mal and  irrational  soul) .  The  spirit,  sometimes  called  nous, 
was  considered  as  the  real  man,  or  man  as  he  exists  in  the 
divine  idea ;  and  as  it  is  generated  by  the  Father  (pure 
thought),  and  is  the  first  emanation  from  the  "Unknown," 
it  possesses  a  nature  kindred  and  even  homogeneous  with 
the  Divinity,  and  is  capable  of  beholding  the  eternal  reali- 
ties.    The  lowest  degree  is  the  blind  animal  life-principle,  or 


110  TUB    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

soul,  techuically  called  thumos.  The  word  is  derived  from 
the  verb  Oxxn  {thuo),  meaning  to  burn  and  also  to  sacrifice. 
It  means,  also,  to  move  with  a  rapid,  violent,  impetuous 
motion,  and  hence  was  considered  the  seat  of  all  disordered 
and  vehement  passions,  such  as  govern  the  life  of  animals. 
In  the  New  Testament  Psychology  it  is  called  the  flesh  and 
the  carnal  mind,  and  to  be  under  its  dominion  is  death.  It 
is  the  sensuous  mind,  the  seat  of  all  sensation,  as  many  ani- 
mals have  the  senses  more  acutely  developed  than  man.  All 
its  perceptions  are  illusory  and  fallacious,  —  a  false  seeming. 
Life  on  this  plane,  the  basement  story  of  conscious  being, 
is  a  dream,  rather  than  a  reality,  when  the  innermost  divine 
spirit  is  latent,  and  not  developed  into  conscious  activity. 
Plato,  in  the  "  Republic,"  represents  such  men  as  captives  in 
a  subterranean  cave,  with  their  backs  turned  toward  the  light, 
and  who  can  see  nothing  but  the  reflected  shadows  of  things, 
and  yet  think  them  actual  realities.  In  order  to  the  percep- 
tion of  the  real  truth  of  things,  we  must  rise  to  a  higher  plane 
of  thought  and  life. 

The  intermediate  degree,  or  distinct  region  of  mind,  which 
is  situated  between  the  two  extremes  of  mental  existence, 
and  which  is  capable  of  being  influenced  by  either  the  higher 
or  the  lower,  —  the  inmost  divine  spirit  or  the  irrational  ani- 
mal soul,  —  was  called  psyche,  or  the  rational  soul.  "When 
freed  from  the  distorting  influences  of  the  physical  senses 
and  the  selfish  animal  passions,  and  disencumbered  of  the 
body,  it  is  the  Logos  or  Word,  —  the  true  light  of  every  man 
that  cometh  into  the  world.  It  dwells  in  the  '^  intelligible 
-^orld,"  —  the  world  of  ideas  and  of  enduring  realities.  It 
is  the  region  of  creation  and  of  formation.  It  is  the  true 
object  of  all  education  to  free  the  soul  from  the  trammels  of 
the  body,  and  raise  it  from  the  plane  of  sense  to  the  percep- 
tion of  the  real  and  the  enduring,  in  the  place  of  the  mere 
seeming,  the  ever-changing,  and  the  evanescent.  This  is  the 
liberty  wherewith  the  Christ,  the   inward  "Word,  makes  us 


THE    rxtl.MlTIVE    MINI>-CUUE.  Ill 

free  (Gal.  v:  1).  It  is  the  "Justice,"  or  right  thinking  of 
the  Kabala,  a  rectitude  of  mental  perception,  called  by  the 
apostle  Paul  the  righteousness  which  is  of  faith.  For  faith 
is  the  action  of  the  mind  above  the  plane  of  sense. 

Swedenborg's  doctrine  of  degrees,  or  of  three  discrete 
regions  of  the  mind,  was  borrowed  and  reproduced  from 
the  Hermetic  philosoph}'.  He  says :  "In  every  man  there 
are  from  creation  three  degrees  of  life,  —  the  celestial, 
the  spiritual,  and  the  natural."  {True  Clirisiian  Religion^ 
sec.  239.)  These  degrees  constitute  three  distinct  ranges 
or  planes  of  life,  or  three  worlds  or  heavens.  In  another 
place,  Swedeuborg  says:  "  I  have  been  instructed  concern- 
ing these  degrees  of  life,  that  it  is  the  last  degree  of  life 
which  is  called  the  external  or  natural  man,  by  which  degree 
man  is  like  the  animals  as  to  concupiscences  and  phantasies. 
And  that  the  next  degree  of  life  is  what  is  called  the  internal 
and  rational  man,  by  which  man  is  superior  to  the  animals ; 
for  by  virtue  thereof  he  can  think  and  will  what  is  good  and 
true,  and  have  dominion  over  the  natural  man  b}-  restrain- 
ing and  also  rejecting  its  concupiscences  and  the  phantasies 
thence  derived ;  and  moreover,  by  reflecting  within  himself 
concerning  heaven,  —  yea,  concerning  the  Divine  Being,  — 
which  the  brute  animals  are  altogether  incapable  of  doing. 
And  that  the  third  degree  of  life  is  what  is  most  unknown  to 
man,  although  it  is  that  through  which  the  Lord  flows  into 
the  rational  mind,  thus  giving  man  a  faculty  of  thinking  as  a 
man,  and  also  conscience,  and  a  perception  of  what  is  good, 
and  elevation  from  the  Lord  towards  Himself.  But  these 
things  are  remote  from  the  ideas  of  the  learned  of  our  age." 
{Arcana  Celestia,  3747.)  This  doctrine  of  degrees  bears  a 
close  resemblance  to  the  Platonic  views  given  above. 

The  Alchemists,  who  were  simply  Hermetic  philosophers, 
writing  in  a  language  wholly  unintelligible  to  those  who  had 
not  the  key  to  it,  made  the  trine  nature  of  man  and  all 
things  to  consist  of  salt,  mercury,  and  sulphur.    Salt  was  the 


112  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

universal  menstruum,  the  prima  materia,  from  which  all 
concrete  things  spring,  and  to  which  they  are  reducible,  and 
is  the  body  of  man  as  to  its  primal  substance.  Mercury  was 
the  symbol  of  the  rational  soul,  the  true  anima  mundi,  the 
Logos,  or  creative  Word  in  man.  Sulphur  was  the  secret 
fire  or  spirit  in  the  system  of  the  Alchemists.  The  three 
united  into  a  unity,  which  is  the  ti'ue  spiritual  or  illuminated 
state,  was  the  philosopher's  stone,  and  the  white  stone  of  the 
Apocalypse.  (Rev.  ii:  17.)  It  was  the  true  magic  mirror 
or  translucent  "  spirit-seeing  crystal."  The  term  for  crystal 
in  Greek  is,  when  divided  into  twin  or  half-words  as  follows  : 
chryst-allos,  and  means  that  the  philosopher's  stone  is  the 
Christ  within,  in  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge.  Christ  within  is  the  great  mystery  of  the 
Gospel.  (Col.  i  :  27.)  "  Know,"  says  Synesius,  "  that  the 
gwni^essence  and  hidden  thing  of  our  '  stone  '  is  nothing  less 
than  our  celestial  and  glorious  soul,  drawn  by  our  magistery 
(instruction)  out  of  its  mine,  which  engenders  itself,  and 
brings  itself  forth." 

Dr.  Justinus  Kerner,  in  his  life  of  Madam  Haufe,  the 
Seeress  of  Prevorst,  following  the  Kabala,  makes  our  inner 
man  to  consist  of  geist  (spu-it),  seele,  (soul),  and  nerven 
geist,  or  nerve  spirit,  a  semi-intelligent  life-principle.  The 
7ierven  geist  answers  to  the  Kabalistic  nephesli,  crude  spirit, 
aud  being  only  of  a  semi-spiritual  nature,  is  that  which 
renders  the  rational  soul  visible  as  an  apparition.  It  is  the 
astral  body,  and  by  means  of  it  the  soul  is  enabled  to  affect 
material  objects,  make  noises,  and  move  articles.  In  short, 
it  can  speak  to  the  inner  ear  of  a  person,  using  the  universal 
ffither  as  its  vibrating  atmosphere.  The  adept  or  true  illumi- 
nattis  can  free  his  soul  from  the  body  at  any  time,  for  he  has 
attained  to  the  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God  (Rom.  viii :  21), 
and  can  clothe  the  soul  with  the  more  subtle  elements  of  the 
cTOcZe  sinrit  or  nephesh,  and  go  where  he  pleases,  and  pro- 
duce effects,  as  interiorly  speaking  to  a  person  communi- 


THE    PEUnXIVE    MIND-CURE.  113 

eating  to  them  an  idea  and  an  inward  impulse  to  an  action, 
impar*^vng  to  tliem  a  sense  of  his  presence,  and  sometimes 
becoiuing  visible  to  them.  In  this  state  a  man  is  invested 
with  the  powers  and  properties  of  a  disembodied  spirit,  and 
can  speak  by  psychological  impression  to  another  mind  far  or 
near.  Says  the  northern  Seer,  "  The  speech  of  an  angel  or 
of  a  spirit  with  man  is  heard  as  sonorously  as  the  speech  of 
one  man  with  another,  yet  it  is  not  heard  by  others  who  stand 
near^  but  by  the  man  himself  alone.  The  reason  is  that  the 
speech  of  an  angel  or  of  a  spirit  flows  first  into  the  man's 
thought,  and  by  an  internal  way  into  his  organ  of  hearing, 
and  thus  actuates  it  from  within  ;  whereas  the  speech  of  man 
flows  first  into  the  air,  and  by  an  external  way  into  his  organ 
of  hearing,  which  it  actuates  from  tvithout.  Hence  it  is 
evident  that  the  speech  of  an  angel  and  of  a  spirit  with  man  is 
heard  in  man,  and  since  it  equally  affects  the  organs  of  hear- 
ing, that  it  is  equally  sonorous." 

It  was  one  of  the  arcane  principles  of  the  archaic  wisdom 
religion  and  science  of  man,  that  is  now  lost  to  the  world  at 
large,  that  it  is  possible  for  the  intellectual  soul  to  free  itself 
from  the  trammels  of  the  body,  and  emancipate  itself  from 
all  material  restraints  and  limitations.  It  then  acts  above 
time  and  space,  and  can  transport  itself,  tvith  all  its  senses, 
to  any  part  of  the  world,  guided  and  governed  by  the  inner 
divine  pneuma  or  spirit.  It  can  make  itself  felt  and  seen  by 
persons  a  hundred  miles  away,  for  it  is  where  it  thinlcs  to  be. 
In  the  tenth  book  of  the  Pymander  (power  of  thought 
divine)  of  Hermes,  it  is  said  :  "  Command  thy  soul  to  go  to 
India,  and  sooner  than  thou  canst  bid  it,  it  will  be  there." 

"Bid  it  likewise  pass  over  the  ocean,  and  suddenly  it  will 
be  there." 

"  Command  it  to  fly  into  heaven,  and  it  will  need  no  wings, 
neither  shall  anything  hinder  it,  not  the  fire  of  the  sun,  nor 
the  aether,  nor  the  turning  of  the  spheres  ;  not  the  bodies  of 
any  of  the  stars  ;  — but,  cutting  through  all,  it  will  fly  up  to 
the  last  and  furtherest  body." 


114  THE    PRIMITIVE    MTND-CUKE. 

If  any  one  should  ask,  "  What  becomes  of  the  body,  while 
the  soul  is  absent  from  it?"  the  answer  is  that  its  life  is 
continued  and  all  the  vital  processes  are  carried  on  by  the 
Universal  Soul,  of  which  the  individual  soul  is  a  part. 

This  separation  of  the  soul,  and  making  it  independent  of 
the  body  and  of  the  laws  of  matter,  can  be  done  when  the 
person  is  in  a  perfectly  normal  state,  without  a  trance,  and 
only  in  a  state  of  mental  abstraction,  which  would  not  be 
Doticed  by  others;  or,  as  Swedenborg  calls  it,  "  in  a  state 
of  perfect  wakefulness." 

It  would  at  first  thought  appear,  that  to  free  the  soul  from 
the  body  was  the  last  thing  reached,  in  our  spu'itual  develop- 
ment, the  very  summit  of  human  attainment.  But  so  far  is 
this  from  being  the  case,  that  it  is  viewed  in  the  Hermetic  phi- 
losophy as  the  first  step  to  a  true  sph-itual  elevation,  and  the 
evolution  of  the  deific  powers  of  man.  It  is  to  be  observed, 
as  Thomas  Taylor  has  remarked  in  the  preface  to  his  transla- 
tion of  the  "Phaedo"  of  Plato,  that  to  separate  the  soul  from 
the  body,  that  is,  to  set  it  free  from  the  limitations  of  the 
bodily  senses,  and  disencumber  it  of  all  gross  matter,  is  one 
thing,  and  to  separate  the  body  from  the  soul  is  quite  another 
thing.  The  one  is  a  philosophical  state,  the  other  is  what 
men  call  natural  death.  To  be  able  to  emancipate  the  soul, 
and  free  it  from  all  dependence  upon  organic  conditions,  is 
necessary  to  the  highest  form  of  knowledge  and  spiritual 
power.  Plato  says  in  the  "Phaedo"  :  "  It  is  demonstrated  to 
us,  that  if  we  are  designed  to  know  anything  purely,  we  must 
be  liberated  from  the  body,  and  behold  things  with  the  soul 
itself."  When  we  do  this  we  become  inhabitants  of  an  inte- 
rior realm,  the  "  intelligible  world,"  the  home  of  aU  knowl- 
edge, and  see  things  in  idea  alone,  and  consequently  in  their 
reality.  Freed  from  the  earthly  body,  the  soul  appears  in 
that  world  in  a  form  or  body  that  is  composed  of  the  pui-e 
substance  of  that  world.  "  For  according  to  the  arcana  of 
the  Platonic  philosophy,"  says  Thomas  Taylor,  "  between  an 


THE    I'RIMITIVK    MINU-€UI4K.  115 

etherial  body,  which  is  simple  and  immaterial,  and  is  the 
eternal  connate  vehicle  of  the  soul,  and  a  terrene  (or  earthy) 
body,  which  is  material  and  composite,  there  is  an  aerial 
body,  which  is  material  indeed  (like  the  nerven  geist  of  Ker- 
ner,  and  the  nephesh  of  the  Kabala),  but  simple,  and  of  a 
more  extended  duration.  And  in  this  body  the  unpurilied 
soul  dwells  for  a  long  time  after  its  exit  from  hence,  till  this 
pneumatic  (or  aerial)  vehicle  being  dissolved,  it  is  again 
invested  with  a  composite  body  ;  while,  on  the  contrary,  the 
purified  soul  immediately  ascends  into  the  celestial  regions 
with  its  etherial  vehicle  alone."  Plato,  in  the  "  Cratylus,"  a 
treatise  on  the  "rectitude  of  names,"  says  that  the  body 
(rrw/Aa)  of  man  was  so  named  because  it  is  the  sepuldire 
((r>7/Lta)  of  the  soul.  And  it  was  the  object  of  tlie  Eleusinian 
Mysteries  to  show  that  union  with  the  body  and  bondage  to 
matter  and  sense,  was  death.  This  was  taught  also  by  Jesus 
and  Paul.  To  free  tlie  soul  from  its  material  thraldom,  and 
convince  it  of  the  illusoyy  nature  of  matter,  is  the  true  anas- 
tasis,  or  resurrection  of  the  soul  from  the  dead.  This  is  the 
resurrection  to  which  Paul  refers,  and  which  he  sought  to 
attain.  (Phil,  iii:  11-13.)  It  was  the  aim  of  Buddhism, 
and  also  of  the  ancient  Mysteries,  to  lead  the  initiate  to  this. 
To  this  Jesus  refers  when  he  says,  "  Ye  shall  know  the  truth, 
and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free."  (John  viii :  32.)  It  u 
tlie  state  of  ecstasy  of  Plotinus  and  the  Neo-Platonists,  and 
which  they  considered  necessary  to  the  attainment  of  the 
most  exalted  spiritual  knowledge  and  power.  It  is  a  state 
in  which  the  ordinary  functions  of  the  senses  are  suspended, 
and  the  pure  mind  is  freed  from  their  dominion.  Says  the 
Kabala,  ' '  Come  and  see  when  the  soul  reaches  that  place 
which  is  called  the  Treasury  of  Life  ;  she  enjoys  a  briglit 
and  luminous  mirror,  which  receives  its  light  from  tlie  high- 
est heavens."  {SoJiar.  I,  Co,  b.)  In  closing  this  section,  I 
would  only  say  that  the  Rosicrueians  claimed  to  be  able  to 
know  all  that  was  ever  known  in  any  part  of  the  world  and 


116  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

in  every  age  ;  for  all  that  was  ever  known  still  exists,  indeli- 
bly recorded  on  the  tablet  of  the  Universal  Mind,  and  our 
individual  mind  may  be  an  inlet  to  it.  All  that  was  ever 
known  exists  in  the  "  intelligible  world,"  the  world  of  ideas; 
and  into  this  realm  we  rise  when  we  learn  to  forget  the  body 
and  become  spirit. 

The  action  of  the  intellectual  soul  at  a  distance,  and  an 
internal  perception  of  persons  and  things,  which  is  not 
dependent  upon  the  external  organs  of  sense,  which  is 
sometimes  witnessed  in  the  present  day,  is  no  new  phenom- 
enon in  psychological  science.  It  was  experienced  by  Paul, 
and  hence  belongs  to  Christianity,  and  is  nothing  foreign  and 
hostile  to  it.  He  says  to  the  Christians  at  Colosse,  "Though 
I  am  absent  in  the  flesh,  yet  am  I  with  you  in  the  spirit,  joy- 
ing and  beholding  your  order  and  the  steadfastness  of  your 
faith  in  Clu-ist."  (Col.  ii :  5.)  To  the  same  effect  he  speaks 
to  the  Corinthian  Church.  (I  Cor.  v:  3.)  And  also  the 
remarkable  experience  recorded  in  II  Cor.  xii :  1-5.  These 
states  were  only  a  liberation  of  the  soul  from  the  ti'ammels 
of  matter,  and  not  a  projection  of  the  soul  out  of  the  body, 
as  some  have  called  it,  for  that  would  imply  that  the  soul  was 
in  the  body  like  a  bird  in  a  cage.  This  is  not  the  real  truth, 
but  an  illusion  as  much  as  the  appearance  of  our  image  in  a 
mirror,  which  is  not  in  the  glass  at  all,  but  in  our  seusorium, 
which  is  the  mind  on  the  plane  of  sense. 


TUB    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE.  117 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

EXECUTING   JUDGMENT    UPON    OURSELVES,    OR   IN   THOUGHT 
SEPARATING    DISEASE    FROM    THE    REAL    SELF. 

To  think  and  to  exist  are  one  and  tlie  same.  /  think  and 
/  am  are  identical  expressions.  To  think  rightly  is  to  be 
well  and  happy.  The  first  thing  to  be  done  in  curing  our- 
selves of  disease  by  the  ideal  or  psychological  method,  is 
to  separate,  in  thought,  our  inner  conscious  self,  the  im- 
mortal divine  Ego,  from  the  disease,  placing  the  malady  out- 
side our  real  being,  and  viewing  it  as  no  pai't  of  ourselves, 
but  as  something  foreign  to  us.  This,  in  the  expressive 
language  of  Scripture,  is  executing  a  judgment,  or  an  act  of 
separation,  as  the  word  means,  upon  ourselves.  We  learn 
to  distinguish  between  ourselves  and  the  disease.  Of  disease 
and  pain,  which  seem  to  be  the  common  lot  of  mankind, 
Fichte  very  truly  says:  "They  can  reach  only  the  nature 
with  which  I  am  in  a  wonderful  manner  united,  not  what  is 
properly  myself,  the  being  exalted  above  nature."  {Desti- 
nation of  Man,  p.  125.)  Supposing  I  had  a  wart  upon  my 
hand ;  I  should  ask  myself  the  question,  is  that  wart  any 
necessary  part  even  of  my  body?  I  am  certain  that  it  is 
not,  but  is  rather  a  superfluous  and  needless  excrescence. 
But  I  am  equally  conscious  tliat  it  is  no  part  of  my  inner 
self,  — what  Plato,  and  Paul,  and  Swedenborg  call  the  inward 
man.  The  same  is  true  of  disease,  which  is  always  a  de- 
formity, or  a  deviation  from  the  true  idea  of  my  being.  It 
is  no  part  of  my  real  self.  I  disown  and  renounce  all  con- 
nection with  it,  and  relationship  to  it.  If  I  can  maintain 
this  attitude  of  thought  toward  it,  the  malady  will  disappear 


118  THE    PRIlMinVE    jynND-CURE. 

as  certiunly  as  a  cloudy  clay  will  sometime  be  followed  by 
suushiiie.  It  will  have  no  solid  foundation  on  which  it  can 
rest,  and  will  vanish  as  surely  as  the  loosened  hair  of  an 
animal  in  spring  will  fall  from  him,  or  the  withered,  and  now 
useless,  leaves  in  autumn  will  drop  from  the  tree  to  the 
ground. 

Of  one  truth  we  may  be  certain,  and  it  is  fundamental  in 
the  ideal  or  transcendental  method  of  healing  ourselves  or 
others  :  that  what  I  do  not  like  is  no  part  of  me.  Jesus 
said  of  the  prince  of  the  world,  or  the  ruling  principle  of  the 
age  in  which  he  lived,  that  it  came  to  him,  but  found  nothing 
in  him.  There  was  nothing  in  him  that  responded  to  it.  He 
executed  judgment  upon  it,  and  separated  himself  wholly 
from  it.  "Now  is  the  judgment  of  this  world  (or  age). 
Now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world  (or  age)  be  cast  out." 
He  elevated  himself  above  and  out  of  the  current  or  sphere 
of  the  world-life.  Paul  also  learned  from  the  profound 
occult  philosophy'  and  arcane  science  into  which  he  had  been 
initiated,  to  distinguish,  or  separate  in  thought,  between  his 
real  self,  his  spiritual  entity,  and  what  he  did  not  like,  or 
that  to  which  his  ruling  love  and  his  will,  which  were  his 
life,  were  opposed.  He  says:  "The  good  that  I  would  (or 
desire)  I  do  not ;  but  the  evil  that  I  would  not,  that  I  do. 
Now  if  I  do  that  I  would  not  (or  dislike) ,  it  is  no  more  I 
(the  true  self)  that  do  it,  but  sin  (in  the  sense  of  error,  illu- 
sion) that  dwelleth  in  me."  (Eom.  vii :  19,  20.)  This  is  a 
most  important  principle,  and  of  far-reaching  practical  value. 
Let  us  return  to  om'  rude  illustration  of  disease,  the  wart  on 
the  hand,  or  we  can  take  a  tumor  internal  or  external.  If  I 
like  it,  I  take  it  up  into  my  life,  and  it  becomes  an  integral 
part  of  myself.  I  incorporate  it  into  my  being,  and  I  become 
one  with  it.  This  is  true  of  everything  I  like.  It  finds  some- 
thing in  me  that  responds  to  it,  and  which  meets  and  unites 
with  it.  In  fact,  it  is  only  the  outward  correspondence  of 
what  was  already  in  me.     But  if  I  do  not  like  it,  and  thus 


THE  PunriTivE  mind-cuue.  119 

view  it  as  something  foreign  to  me,  I  separate  it  from  my 
life,  and  tlic  wart,  or  tumor,  or  disease  will  die,  and  I  shall 
live  on  without  it.  If  I  thus  disown  it  as  a  part  of  m3'sclf , 
and  cease  to  think  of  it  as  included  in  the  contents  of  the 
Ego^  it  will  derive  no  support  from  my  inner  being,  and  will 
disappear  as  certainly  as  a  branch  severed  from  a  tree  will 
wither  and  die  of  itself.  So  a  disease  upon  which  I  sit  in 
judgment,  from  the  throne  of  the  divine  spirit  in  me,  or 
which  I  separate  from  my  conscious  inner  self,  and  utterly 
disown  as  a  part  of  myself,  will  be  not  only  like  a  house  built 
upon  the  sand,  but  like  a  castle  in  the  air,  a  building  that 
has  no  foundation,  and  which  must  of  necessity  fall  to  the 
ground,  or  i-ather  must  be  viewed  like  all  sensuous  illusions 
as  having  no  real  existence.  We  make  disease  a  part  of 
ourselves  only  by  thinking  it  such,  and  thus  we  give  it 
vitality,  and  a  certain  hold  upon  us.  This  is  a  falsity,  a 
phantasy,  an  error,  an  illusion,  and  a  sin  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  proper  sense  of  the  word.  The  great  lesson  which 
every  invalid  needs  to  learn,  is  to  cast  it  out  of  his  real  inner 
self,  by  viewing  that  self  as  entirely  distinct  and  separate 
from  it,  to  draw,  as  it  were,  a  circle  to  represent  his  inward 
man,  his  spiritual  being,  and  then  place  the  disease  as  an 
unsightly  blot  outside  its  circumference.  Disease  is  thus  no 
longer  classed  with  the  realities  of  being,  but  is  relegated  to 
the  region  of  illusion.  B}'  a  right  mode  of  thinking  we  cast 
it  out  and  dispossess  ourselves  of  it.  Then  it  will  be  as  the 
poet  Crabbe  says  of  every  great  lie  —  like  a  great  fish  out  of 
water.  Only  let  it  alone,  and  it  will  die  of  itself.  When  I 
am  conscious  that  I  do  not  like  a  disease  that  has  afflicted 
me,  then  that  inward  self  that  dislikes  it  may  be  considered 
as  entirely  free  from  it.  It  is  outside  the  boundaries  of  my 
immortal  and  real  being.  To  maintain  with  a  volitional 
obstinacy  this  attitude  of  thought  towards  it,  will  have  a 
marvellous  power  in  cui'ing  it.  By  coming  to  a  rectitude  of 
judgment,  as  Jesus  calls  it,  and  elevating  our  thoughts  above 

OT  TFP 

UNIVEBBITY 


^>^ 


CAIJFOS^ 


120  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

the  region  of  a  false  seeming,  it  removes  the  obstruction  in 
the  "way  of  the  inward  divine  self,  appropriating  the  physical 
organism  as  its  perfect  representative  in  the  world  of  sense. 
If  we  steadfastly  hold  in  mind  this  true  idea  of  ourselves,  it 
will  form  the  soul,  and  through  that  the  body  into  its  out- 
ward expression,  just  as  certainly  as  in  a  stormy  day,  when 
the  clouds  are  dispersed,  the  sun  will  shine.  The  error,  the 
illusion,  that  1  am  sick,  or  in  pain,  or  any  discomfort,  that 
my  real  and  inner  self  is  diseased  or  unhappy,  is  that  alone 
which  forms  a  cloud  between  me  and  the  sun  of  a  higher  sky, 
whence  all  life  emanates.  When  that  veil  is  removed,  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness  with  its  living  light  will  arise  within 
my  interior  world  icitli  healing  on  its  ivings.  The  chilling  fog 
of  sensuous  fallacies  and  delusions  wiU  lift,  and  show  our 
willing  feet  the  shining  pathway  to  a  higher  life  and  diviner 
blessedness. 

It  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  that  all  natural  objects  have  an 
immaterial  or  spiritual  side  which  is  their  invisible  counter- 
part. This  is  their  image  or  idea.  All  the  things  of  the 
outward  world  —  the  sun,  moon  and  stars,  rivers,  trees, 
mountains  and  flowers  —  have  existence  in  mind  alone,  as 
thoughts  and  feelings,  or  ideas  and  sensations.  If  either  is 
wanting,  they  cease  to  exist  as  concrete  entities.  For,  as 
Berkeley  affirms,  their  esse  is  percij)i;  that  is,  their  being 
consists  in  being  perceived.  The  same  is  true  of  the  human 
body  and  those  conditions  of  it  which  we  call  diseases,  as  a 
wart,  or  tumor,  or  cancer.  These  are  but  a  combination  of 
sensational  images  or  ideas,  apart  from  which  they  cannot 
have  an  objective  realit}'. 

We  have  shown  in  what  has  been  said  above  the  importance 
of  separating  our  inner  self  from  the  malady  of  whatever 
nature  it  may  be,  and  of  viewing  our  real  self  as  free  from 
it.  For,  as  Von  Me3'er's  lucid  subject  says,  "The  spirit  is 
not  subject  to  suffering  as  the  soul  is,"  and  the  spirit  is  what 
we  mean  by  the  Ego^  when  we  say  I  am.    But  we  may  go  a 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  121 

step  further  in  this  act  of  judgment,  and  disown  the  very 
idea  of  disease.  The  disease,  according  to  the  system  of 
Berkeley,  exists  only  as  a  morbid  idea,  and  this  has  an  exis- 
tence only  in  the  external  sensuous  range  of  mind,  the  animal 
soul,  or  Paul's  psychical  man.  This  is  not  my  divine  and 
immortal  Ego  or  self,  for  that  is  spii'it,  and  as  such  is  a 
manifestation  of  the  grand  unity  of  Spirit,  which  is  God. 
This  is  the  Kabalistic  "  Son  of  God."  It  was  taught  by 
Hermes  Trismegistus,  that  God's  Son  is  the  only  man,  and 
is  the  immortal  divine  spirit  that  constitutes  the  inmost  being 
of  every  personality.  It  is  the  divine  entity  which  is  the 
real  man,  the  essential  Ego,  for  the  material  body,  and  its 
vivifj'ing  animal  soul  are  onl}'  the  covering  of  the  real  man. 
And  this  divine  personality  is  exempt  from  the  possibility  of 
old  age,  disease,  pain,  and  death  itself.  By  disowning  and 
renouncing  the  idea  of  the  malady  as  being  any  part  of  our 
real  self,  it  will  fade  away  from  thought  and  existence, 
because  we  have  cut  the  root  from  which  it  derives  all  its 
life.  We  say  of  certain  persons  that  we  dislike  the  sight  of 
them,  and  even  renounce  the  thought  of  them.  We  disown 
them  as  companions,  cut  ourselves  loose  from  their  society, 
and  throw  away  and  burn  their  picture,  and  everything  which 
can  by  association  recall  their  idea.  With  a  calm  and  tran- 
quil frame  of  mind  we  must  do  something  like  this  w'th 
disease,  and  pain,  and  the  source  of  any  mental  unhapi>'aess. 
We  must  learn  to  separate  our  real  self,  the  immortal  "  Son 
of  God,"  from  it,  and  renounce  all  ownership  in  it  as  a  part 
of  ourself,  and  then  do  the  same  with  the  sensational  image 
or  idea  of  it  in  the  soul,  which  is  the  sensuous  or  animal 
mind,  and  the  only  seat  of  disease  and  pain.  We  view  this 
thumetic  region  of  our  existence  with  all  its  contents  of  dis- 
ordered passions,  phantasies,  illusions,  and  morbid  ideas,  as 
outside  the  circumference  of  our  inner  divine  self.  This  is 
the  dividing  asunder  of  the  soul  and  spirit  under  the  influence 
of  the  inward  divine  light,  which  is  called  the  Word  of  God, 


J  22  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUBE. 

of  wliicli  the  unknown  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
speaks.  (Heb.  iv  :  12.)  He,  who  can  learn  to  do  this  with 
facility,  has  a  marvellous  power  of  healing  himself  and 
others.  It  is  the  highest  act  of  faith,  and  that  state  of  mind 
to  which  Jesus  refers  when  he  says  :  "  Be  it  unto  thee  accord- 
ing to  thy  faith."  Faith  is  an  activity  of  mind  above  the 
plane  of  the  senses,  and  a  perception  of  truth  that  lies  above 
and  beyond  their  illusions  and  fallacious  appearances.  It  is 
the  divine  order  that  the  higher  should  control  the  lower  ;  the 
interior,  the  external.  And  as  faith  springs  from  the  inmost 
divine  realm  of  our  being,  since  it  is,  as  Paul  asserts,  "  the 
gift  of  God,"  it  has  dominion  dei  gratia  over  both  the  soul 
and  the  body. 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  123 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    CREATIVE    POWER    OF   THE    IDEAL,    OR    THE    EXTERNA  LIZ  A- 

TION    OF   THOUGHT. 

In  the  Kabalistic  scheme  of  creation,  called  the  ten  Sephi- 
roth,  or  Emanations,  and  which  contains  the  key  to  all  arcane 
philosophy,  the  first  emanation  from  the  "Unknown"  is  pure 
thought.  This  is  the  Christ  of  whom  Paul  so  often  speaks, 
the  starting-point,  the  Crown  of  all  existence.  This  divides 
into  two  rays,  —  a  Father  and  Mother  ray  :  a  masculine  and 
active,  a  feminine  and  reactive  potency ;  the  one  pure  intel- 
ligence, the  other  wisdom.  The  union  of  these  in  all  their 
correlations  is  necessary  to  the  existence  of  everything  in 
earth  and  heaven.  Existence  and  thought  are  identical. 
All  being  (or  substance)  by  a  law  of  necessity  assumes 
Jorm.  A  thought  of  a  thing,  by  a  law  of  evolution  inhe- 
rent in  its  nature,  assumes  form  in  an  idea,  which  is  the 
living  image  of  the  thought.  It  is  the  form,  or  first  expres- 
sion, of  the  thought.  But  an  idea  tends  to  a  further  exter- 
nalization,  in  fact,  to  become  an  actuality  in  the  world  of 
sense.  This  is  the  true  conception  of  the  law  of  creation. 
It  is  the  successive  stages  in  the  externalization  of  thought, 
first  as  a  living  image  or  soul  of  a  thing  which  we  call  an 
idea.  It  is  being,  or  tliought,  becoming  visible  in  a  form 
and  as  a  form.  Then  it  passes  still  further  outward  (or 
downward)  and  ultimates  itself  in  the  material  world, 
or  comes  to  a  manifestation  on  the  plane  of  sense.  All 
mind  is  essentially  creative,  and  the  subjective  tends  to 
become  objective,  and  the  ideal  to  puss  into  the  act- 
ual.     As   God   creates    the  world   by  that   effort   of   Will 


124  THE   PRIMITIVE    MIKD-CURE 

find  Thought,  —  which  Plato  calls  the  Divine  Idea,  and 
Swedenborg  and  the  Gospel  of  John,  the  Word,  —  so  we, 
as  being  in  the  image  of  God,  can,  in  a  certain  proper 
sense,  create.  With  a  certain  intensity  of  will  and  thought, 
the  images  that  arise  are  subjective.  They  are  called  hallu- 
ciaations,  or  creatures  of  the  imagination.  They  are  by  no 
means  destitute  of  reality,  for  all  the  objects  of  nature  are 
only  a  mental  picture  more  or  less  vivid.  To  us,  as  in  our 
dreams,  they  are  as  real  as  any  of  the  visible  objects  of  the 
world  around  us.  With  a  more  intense  and  intelligent  con- 
centration of  the  will,  the  intellectual  ideas  take  shape  in  the 
cosmic  matter,  —  the  mother  principle  of  things,  —  and  be- 
come concrete,  objective,  and  visible  entities.  Here  is  the 
greatest  of  secrets,  the  deepest  of  all  mysteries,  explained, 
—  the  law  of  creation.  In  this  way  God  perpetually  creates 
the  world  in  us  and  through  us. 

All  ideas  distinctly  formed  in  the  mind  respecting  ourselves 
tend  to  a  full  realization  in  the  body.  The  sph-itual  and  ideal 
form  tends  to  a  further  externalization  in  a  material  shape. 
The  condition  of  the  body  is  always  the  material  shaping  of 
the  controlling  idea.  But  the  developing  of  the  idea,  or  evo- 
lution of  the  spiritual  image  in  the  body,  is  not  always,  nor 
generally,  instantaneous,  but  is  progressive.  The  creation  of 
the  world  instantaneously  by  the  divine  Jiat  is  not  now  enter- 
tained by  thinking  men  anywlicre.  It  is  a  tenet  that  has 
passed  out  of  science  and  philosophy.  In  fact,  creation  is 
not  now  an  accomplished  event.  It  is  not  a  thing  done,  but 
one  that  is  in  the  process  of  being  done.  The  divine  idea  is 
not  yet  fully  realized  or  actualized.  The  world  is  an  unfin- 
ished picture.  As  the  Platonists  would  say,  it  is  in  a  state 
of  becoming.  The  divine  idea,  the  universal  divine  life,  a 
mysterious  power  of  order  and  arrangement,  is  at  the  very 
centre  and  heart  of  things,  struggling  to  work  itself  out  into 
a  complete  material  expression.  Universal  nature  is  moved 
from  within  by  the  Universal  Mind,  of  which  our  minds  are 
a  part. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    SHND-CURE.  125 

In  giving  treatment  to  the  body,  which  is  our  world,  it  \s 
not  so  much  our  aim  to  impart  life  to  it  from  without  — 
though  this  can  be  done  —  as  it  is  to  aid  the  inner  life,  the 
real  conscious  self,  and  the  true  idea  of  our  being  in  its 
birth  into  actuality  or  a  material  expression.  The  body, 
which  is  the  external  sheU  of  our  being,  becomes  fixed.  The 
tschamping,  shampooing,  or  massage  may  remove  the  hard- 
ness of  the  shell  so  that  it  can  more  readily  take  shape  from 
the  inward  idea.  All  motion,  all  progress,  all  development, 
is  in  the  direction  of  the  least  resistance,  as  James  Hinton 
demonstrated.  To  remove  obstructions,  to  break  up  the 
fixedness  of  the  body,  which  is  the  characteristic  of  old  age, 
to  accelerate  the  process  of  excretion  and  disintegration,  is 
to  aid  the  process  of  the  reformation  of  the  body  from 
within.  In  the  germ  of  the  animal  body,  as  in  the  seed  of 
the  plant,  there  is  the  living  idea  of  the  future  organism. 
And  that  idea  forms  the  body  after  the  pattern  of  itself.  It 
is  function  (or  idea)  that  creates  its  appropriate  organ,  and 
not  the  organ  that  makes  the  function.  For  instance,  the 
heart  is  made  to  beat,  and  this  action  commences  before  its 
tissues  are  formed,  even  when  it  is  only  a  fluid  mass  of  proto- 
plasmic jelly.  So  it  is  always  the  function,  the  idea,  which 
creates  its  organic  expression.  Thus  it  is,  and  of  necessity 
must  be,  in  regard  to  the  whole  body. 

If  we  will  form  the  true  idea  of  man,  and  apply  it  to  our- 
selves, and  hold  it  steadfastly  in  the  mind,  and  believe  in  its 
realization,  by  one  of  the  deepest  and  most  certain  laws  of 
our  nature,  it  will  tend  to  recreate  the  body  after  the  pattern 
of  that  mental  type.  Creation  is  a  begetting,  and  nature 
means  that  which  is  born.  It  is  the  product  of  the  divine 
idea  expressing  itself  in  our  minds  on  the  plane  of  sense. 
The  renewal  of  the  body  by  the  creative  power  of  the  divine 
idea  of  man  is  the  true  palingenesis  or  regeneration.  (Mat. 
xix:  28.) 

It  seems  to  be  a  divine  law  that  all  animal  bodies  are 


126  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

reuewed  at  least  once  a  year.  The  crab  and  the  lobster 
annually  cast  off  the  old  shell,  and  a  new  one  forms  from 
within.  The  serpent  sheds  his  skin,  and  this  is  the  last 
step  in  the  renewal  of  his  body.  Birds  cast  off  their 
feathers,  and  this  takes  place  by  a  cause  or  force  that  acts 
from  within  outward,  and  it  is  the  last  stage  in  the  process 
of  their  renewal.  The  ox  and  the  horse  shed  their  hair  in 
spring.  The  tree  renews  itself  once  a  year,  and  a  new  one 
grows  around  the  older  ones,  which  in  time  decay,  leaving 
the  trunk  hollow.  Perennial  plants  die  down  to  the  root, 
where  the  infant  plant-germ  remains,  and  starts  into  life  with 
youthful  vigor  in  the  spring.  All  these  phenomena  are 
illustrations  of  a  general  law  of  life  that  is  called  rejuvenes- 
cence. Man  should  move  forward  in  this  divine  order.  If 
we  keep  the  mind  ever  young,  the  body  can  be  left  to  take 
care  of  itself.  Man,  in  health,  casts  off  the  external  shell 
once  a  year,  for  there  is  nothing  in  the  animal  world  that  is 
not  in  man.  He  "renews  his  youth  as  the  eagles";  but 
what  the  new  body  shall  be  depends  on  the  character  of  the 
controlling  idea  hu^l  fixed  belief,  for  the  outer  shell  will  shape 
itself  into  its  material  expression.  As  God  creates  the 
world  by  the  Divine  Idea,  so  we,  in  the  same  way,  create 
our  bodies,  which  are  a  microcosm,  or  world  on  a  small  scale. 
Every  step  in  the  disintegrating  and  renewing  process  is 
influenced  by  the  governing  idea,  for  the  body  exists,  like 
everything  else,  in  thought,  and  is  what  we  think  it  to  be. 
It  is  formed  after  the  pattern  of  the  image  which  we  form  of 
ourselves  in  the  mind.  If  that  is  the  divine  and  true  idea  of 
man,  it  will  make  our  humanity  diviue,  a  thing  of  health,  and 
harmony,  and  beauty,  even  in  its  ultimate  manifestation  in 
the  body.  If  Jesus,  as  Swedenborg  athrms,  made  his  human- 
ity divine  even  to  its  ultimates,  it  was  effected  by  maintaining 
in  thought,  and  steadfastly  holding  before  his  mind,  the 
divine  idea  of  man.  Every  new  and  higher  conception  which 
we  form  of  the  inward  nature  of  man,  and  consequently  of 


THE    I'UIMITIVE   MIND-CUKE.  127 

ourselves,  b}-  an  undeviating  law,  tends  to  an  outward  bodily 
expression.  It  is  the  living  germ,  the  seed  of  a  new  state, 
having  a  divine  creative  potency  in  it.  A  seed  is  one  of  the 
most  marvellous  things  in  nature.  It  is  the  embodiment  of 
the  idea  of  the  future  plant,  containing  in  it  a  conatus  or 
tendency  to  develop,  under  the  proper  conditions  of  soil  and 
air,  in  the  external  world.  So  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  or 
the  true  spiritual  condition  of  man,  in  its  incipiency,  is  like 
a  grain  of  mustard  which  a  man  plants  in  a  field,  and  which 
afterward  becomes  unfolded  into  a  ti-ee,  "  bearing  fruit  and 
yielding  seed  after  its  kind."  (Luke  xiii  :  19.)  It  is  the 
business  of  the  psychological  physician  to  plant  in  the  mind 
of  the  patient  the  fruitful  idea  of  a  better  condition.  He  is 
like  the  husbandman  that  goes  fox'th  to  sow,  and  often,  from 
a  single  idea  that  finds  lodgement  in  the  interior  mind,  there 
is  afterwards  reaped  an  abundant  harvest.  (Mat.  xiii  :  3-9.) 
The  kingdom  of  heaven,  says  Jesus,  is  also  like  leaven,  which 
a  woman  took  and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  (the  sheah 
was  a  peck  and  a  half)  until  the  whole  was  leavened.  (Mat. 
xiii  :  33.)  If  we  can  impart  a  new  life  to  a  patient,  however 
little  it  may  seem  to  be,  it  will  propagate  itself  and  multiply 
itself  until  it  reduces  the  whole  organism  to  its  own  nature. 
If  our  mode  of  thought  is  on  a  higher  range,  and  our  spiritual 
state  above  his,  it  will  be  easy  to  do  this,  on  the  priiicii)le 
that  water  runs  down  hill,  or  descends  from  a  higher  to  a 
lower  level.  And  whatever  can  be  done  at  all  by  the  psy- 
chological method,  can  be  done  easily  and  without  labored 
effort.  "The  Father,  who  dwelleth  in  us.  He  doeth  the 
works." 

In  the  application  of  this  important  law  to  self-cure,  we 
need  to  fix  in  our  minds  the  change  we  know  ought  to  be 
effected,  or  form  the  idea  of  the  state  to  which  we  aspire, 
and  in  a  measure  we  have  already  become  what  we  desired 
to  be.  It  is  our  right  and  privilege  to  believe  this.  As  an 
artist  said  to  Emerson,  "  A  man  cannot  draw  a  tree  without 


128  THE    PRIMITIVE    jnND-CURE. 

becoming  in  a  certain  sort  a  tree,"  so  we  cannot  form  the 
true  idea  of  an  animal  witliout  becoming  in  some  degree  that 
animal.  In  forming  the  true  conception  of  a  child,  so  that 
we  could  paint  him  as  he  is  internally  and  externally,  we 
become  as  a  child,  and  think  and  feel  as  a  child.  The  idea 
we  form  of  an  angel  is  not  a  mental  picture  or  image  of 
some  one  else,  but  is  that  of  our  true  self.  So  we  cannot 
form  the  true  idea  of  ourselves,  or  of  any  mental  state,  with- 
out becoming  in  some  good  degree,  the  realization  of  it.  To 
steadfastly  believe  this,  and  tenaciously  adhere  to  it,  is  to 
experience  the  dawn  of  the  state  to  which  we  aspire,  and 
this  by  one  of  the  deepest  and  most  uniform  laws  in  the 
whole  world  of  mind. 


PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUEE.  129 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  NATURE  AND   RIGHT   USE   OF   THE  "WILL. 

Much  of  the  efficiency  of  the  will  is  lost  by  our  not  under- 
standing its  true  nature  and  the  best  method  of  its  use. 
The  highest  conception  of  an  act  of  the  will  is  that  it  is  an 
inward  divine  impulse  towards  a  good  end  or  aim.  Paul 
affirms  that  it  is  God  who  worketh  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of 
his  good  pleasure.  (Phil,  ii  :  13.)  The  will  is  the  inner- 
most root  of  our  life,  and  forever  flows  forth  from  the 
Divinity  within  us,  the  tlieocentric  region  of  our  spiritual 
being.  This  is  also  true  of  faith,  which  Paul  also  declares 
to  be  "  the  gift  of  God,"  or  an  emanation  from  Him. 
(Eph.  ii :  8.)  Hence,  Jesus  said  to  his  disciples,  "Have 
the  faith  of  God."  (Mark  xi  :  22,  marginal  reading.) 
Paul,  in  one  of  his  Epistles,  says  that  the  life  which  he  lived 
in  the  flesh,  he  lived  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God 
(Gal.  ii :  20),  which  is  identical  with  the  divine  spirit  of 
man  and  is  in  man.  In  another  place  he  says,  when  it 
pleased  God  to  reveal  his  Son  in  vie,  immediately  I  con- 
ferred not  with  flesh  and  blood,  or  no  longer  took  counsel  of 
the  sensuous  mind,  as  having  a  higher  guidance  within. 
(Gal.  i  :  16.)  The  imagination  is  also,  when  used  in  dis- 
tinction from  the  fancy,  a  divine  spiritual  power,  and  as  a 
mode  of  thought,  is  one  of  the  most  subtle  and  potent  forces 
in  the  universe.  The  fancy  belongs  to  the  psychical  or  animal 
soul  region,  which  is  the  region  of  illusion  and  sensuous  fal- 
lacies. But  thought  is  a  manifestation  of  God.  It  is  a 
power  that  arises  perpetually  out  of  the  One  Life,  and  is 
never   sundered  from  it.     (II  Cor.  iii :  5.)     The  will,  the 


130  THE    PRIBIITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

fuith,  the  imagination,  are  the  highest  powers  of  the  human 
mind,  as  they  are  an  activity  of  the  divine  reakn  of  our  being 
—  a  stirring  of  deep  divinity  within  us.  If  the  end  towards 
which  these  powers  are  directed  is  not  a  worthy  one,  we 
then,  as  it  were,  cut  them  loose  from  the  Divinity  in  us,  and 
they  become  only  a  spontaneous  and  perverted  activity  of  the 
self-hood,  or  the  selfish  action  of  the  animal  soul.  But  there 
lies  back  of  every  vu'tuous  and  beneficent  exercise  of  will, 
the  hfe  and  tranquil  omnipotence  of  the  Deity.  The  Divine 
Mind  is  not  sundered  from  our  voUtional  activity,  in  our 
psychological  effort  to  relieve  pain  and  cure  disease,  any 
more  than  you  can  disconnect  a  ray  of  light  from  its  central 
source.  The  will,  and  imagination,  and  faith  are  from  God, 
and  are  God  in  man.  Pythagoras  taught  his  disciples  that 
God  is  the  Universal  Mind  diffused,  as  it  were,  through  all 
things,  and  this  mind,  or  intelligent  life-principle,  by  virtue 
of  its  universal  sameness,  and  that  it  is  the  inmost  essence 
of  all  things,  could  be  communicated  from  one  object  to 
another,  and  could  be  made  to  create  all  things  by  the  indi- 
vidual will  power  of  man.  (Isis  Unveiled,  vol.  1,  p.  131.) 
This  is  strong  language,  but  there  is  a  profound  truth  in  it 
which  comes  from  a  philosophy  older  than  the  enlightened 
sage  of  Samos.  Marvellous  things,  and  to  the  world  miracu- 
lous things,  have  been  done  by  the  sjiirit,  which  is  the  divine 
and  miraculous  man.  The  inseparable  connection  of  a  wise 
and  good  man  with  God,  was  a  spiritual  verity  better  under- 
stood by  the  older  philosophers  than  by  modern  scientists, 
who  seem  to  have  wholly  lost  sight  of  it.  It  was  taught  as  an 
esoteric  doctrine  in  their  occult  science  and  wisdom-religion. 
Of  modern  philosophers,  no  one  appears  to  have  appre- 
hended this  sublime  truth  with  greater  clearness  than  Johann 
Godfried  Fichte.  He  says  of  the  will  of  man :  "  Every 
virtuous  resolution  (and  we  may  say  the  same  of  every 
benevolent  healing  intention)  influences  the  Omnipotent  Will 
(or  Life) ,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  use  such  an  expression,  not 


THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUKE.  131 

in  consequence  of  a  momentary  approval,  but  of  an  everlast- 
ing law  of  his  Being.  With  surprising  clearness  does  the 
thought  now  come  before  m}'  soul,  which  hitheito  was  sur- 
rounded with  darkness,  —  the  thought  that  my  will,  as  such 
merely,  and  of  itself,  can  have  any  results  (or  conse- 
quences)," (Destination  of  Man,  p.  110.)  In  another 
place  he  says:  "The  will  is  the  effective  cause,  the  living 
principle  of  the  world  of  spirit^  as  motion  is  of  the  woi'ld  of 
sense,  I  stand  between  two  opposite  worlds ;  the  one  visible, 
in  which  the  act  alone  avails,  the  other  invisible  and  incom- 
prehensible, acted  on  only  by  the  will.  I  am  an  effective 
force  in  both  these  worlds.  My  will  embraces  both.  The 
will  is  in  itself  a  constituent  part  of  the  transcendental  world. 
By  my  free  determination  I  change  and  set  in  motion  some- 
thing in  this  transcendental  world,  and  my  energy  gives 
bu'th  to  an  effect  that  is  new,  permanent,  and  imperishable." 
(Destination  of  Man ^  p.  98.) 

In  using  the  will  with  a  healing  intention  upon  ourselves, 
or  in  making  a  psychological  impression  upon  another,  it 
first  acts  in  and  upon  the  Universal  Life-Principle,  and  by 
reaction  upon  the  mind  of  the  patient  or  upon  our  own,  as 
the  case  may  be.  And  in  this  way  we  meet  with  no  obstruc- 
tion and  tendency  to  contradict,  as  we  often  do  when  we 
approach  the  patient  from  without  and  verbally  address  him. 
A  true  healiug  influence  goes  forth  from  our  inward  spirit, 
but  this  is  only  an  individual  manifestation  and  personified 
expression  of  the  One  Spirit  which  is  in  fuU  accord  with  the 
human  spirit.  In  the  psychological  method  of  treating 
disease,  it  is  a  fundamental  doctrine  in  which  we  must 
become  immovably  grounded,  that  a  voluntary  activity  of 
mind  is  the  only  power  and  causal  agent  in  the  universe. 
Mind  and  will  are  the  first  principle  of  motion.  On  this 
subject  Bishop  Berkeley  truly  says  :  "  It  is  plain  pliilosophirs 
amuse  themselves  in  vain  when  the}'  inquire  for  any  natural, 
efficient  cause  distinct  from  a  mind  or  spirit."     (Principles 


132  THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND -CURE. 

of  Human  Knowledge,  sec.  107.)  In  our  effort  to  relieve 
suffering  and  cure  disease  by  mental  action,  we  may  feel 
sure  that  we  are  acting  from  the  realm  of  causation. 

If  we  comprehend  the  principles  laid  down  in  what  has 
been  said  above,  as  to  the  true  nature  of  the  will,  and  can 
appropriate  them,  we  are  prepared  to  receive  instruction  in 
the  use  of  thia  spiritual  power  in  its  most  intense  and  effi- 
cient form  of  action.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  will 
belongs  to  the  Universal  Life-Principle.  It  is  not  an  active, 
but  a  passive  or  reactive  potency.  It  is  included  in  the 
department  of  the  love  or  feeling,  and  in  its  highest  form  is 
the  Chokma  or  Sophia  of  the  Kabala,  which  in  its  correla- 
tions or  descending  degrees  becomes  the  living  force  of  the 
world.  Thought  or  intelligence  is  the  active  or  masculine 
potency,  and  the  will  the  passive  and  feminine  power. 
Thought  speaks,  and  the  will  responds.  In  making  a  psy- 
chological impression,  active  thought  or  intelligence  is  the 
power,  and  the  will  of  the  patient  is  the  responsive  echo. 
The  conception  of  the  will  as  an  active  power,  and  a  power 
capable  of  originating  action  of  itself,  has  been  a  fundamen- 
tal mistake  in  modern  psychology,  but  one  of  which  the 
ancient  science  of  mind  is  free. 

Thought  is  the  highest  active  principle  in  the  universe, 
and  the  will  is  an  equally  potent  reactive  force.  But  the 
most  intense  form  of  its  action  in  a  psychological,  curative 
effort,  upon  ourselves  or  others,  is  not  when  it  is  put  foi'th 
as  a  command,  but  as  a  positive  affirmation.  It  does  not 
say,  "Be  thou  so  and  so,"  but  rather,  "You  will  be  well," 
and  in  its  highest  expression,  "You  are  well."  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  the  will  is  strengthened  by  faith,  which  is 
the  ground  of  all  reality,  and  the  basis  of  all  possibility. 
(Mark  ix  :  23  ;  xi :  24.)  The  will  is  guided  and  qualified  by 
the  imagination.  When  it  goes  forth  in  an  affirmation,  the 
will,  faith,  and  imagination  are  combined  into  a  unity. 
Men  instinctively  use  this  form  of  will,  without  being  able 


THE   PRIMinVE   MIND-CURE.  133 

to  give  a  reason  for  it.  In  the  government  of  cliildi-en  in 
the  school  or  family,  when  the  child  is  directed  to  do  a  cer- 
tain thing,  and  rcpUcs,  "  I  will  not,"  the  parent  or  teacher 
says  to  him,  "  You  will  do  it,"  rather  than  "  I  command  you 
to  do  it."  In  military  life  we  witness  great  numbers  of  men 
controlled  by  one  despotic  mind.  The  commanding  general, 
in  issuing  his  orders  to  his  subordinates  regulating  the  move- 
ments of  a  campaign  or  a  battle,  simply  says  to  each  of 
them,  "You  will  do  this  or  that,"  "You  will  move  with 
your  soldiers  to  youde'r  position,"  and  it  is  done.  In  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis  we  have  a  sublime  exhibition  of  the 
omnipotent,  creative  Thought,  going  forth  as  Will.  It  is 
not  as  in  our  common  translation,  "  Let  there  be  light,  and 
there  was  light "  ;  but,  in  the  more  eloquent  simplicity  of  the 
original  it  is,  "God  said  (or  thought)  Light  is;  and  light 
was."  It  is  only  thought  formulating  itself  in  a  positive 
afiBrmation.  The  more  closely  our  finite  minds  imitate  this 
divine  form  of  expressing  the  will's  potency,  the  more  largely 
it  will  partake  of  God's  omnipotence.  This  explains  the 
reason  of  the  influence  of  simple  suggestion  to  one  who  is  in 
the  magnetic  state.  To  say  to  a  person,  "  You  will  be 
sick"  or  "You  are  sick,"  has  an  influence  in  making  them 
so.  To  suggest  to  him  "You  are  better"  has  more  power 
to  make  him  so  than  a  thousand  orders  or  commands.  So 
to  say  to  a  wicked  man  that  he  is  good,  or  will  be  so,  has 
more  reformative  influence  than  all  our  commands  or  threats 
that  we  can  utter.  When  the  will  goes  forth  in  the  form  of 
a  command,  it  throws  the  thing  to  be  realized  into  the  future  ; 
but  when  united  with  faith,  and  put  forth  as  a  positive 
affirmation,  it  views  the  thing  to  be  done,  the  change  to  be 
effected,  as  a  present  reality,  an  accomplished  fact.  Hence 
Jesus  said  to  the  nobleman  of  Capernaum,  "  Thy  son  liv- 
eth " ;  and  that  very  hour  the  fever  left  him.  (Luke  iv : 
46-54.)  To  the  invalid  at  the  pool  of  Siloam  he  said: 
"  Thou  art  made  whole   (or  saved)  ;  sin  no  more,  lest  a 


134  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

worse  thing  come  upon  thee."  (John  v :  14.)  To  the 
woman  who  had  a  spirit  of  infinnity  for  eighteen  years,  call- 
ing her  to  Mm,  he  said,  "Woman,  thou  art  loosed  from  thine 
infirmity."  (Luke  xiii :  12.)  And  wherever  in  the  language 
used  by  Jesus,  the  will  seems  to  express  itself  in  an  impera- 
tive form,  the  real  meaning  is  an  affirmation,  and  the  origi- 
nal is  usually  capable  of  that  translation.  When  the  leper 
of  Capernaum  said  to  him,  "If  thou  wilt^  thou  canst  make 
me  clean,"  he  replied  "I  will  it;  be  thou  clean";  that  is, 
thou  art  clean  —  a  form  of  expression  which  is  based  on  the 
recognition  of  the  fact,  that  in  his  inner  being,  his  immortal 
self,  he  was  free  from  the  leprosy,  and  that  it  had  an  ex- 
istence only  in  the  body,  which  is  no  part  of  man.  It  is 
only  an  illusory  veil  which  conceals  the  real  man  from  view. 
The  affirmation  of  Jesus,  addi-essed  to  the  inward  man,  was 
responded  to  by  the  man's  will,  and  there  was  awakened  in 
him  a  consciousness,  a  feeling  of  the  truth  of  it.  Thus  the 
will  exhibited  its  true  nature,  as  a  reactive  principle,  a  re- 
sponsive echo  of  thought.  It  is  the  Verily,  the  Amen  of  the 
New  Testament ;  a  word  derived  from  the  Hebrew  Amtma, 
meaning  truth.  The  rabbins  believed  it  to  possess  a  won- 
derful power.  Its  full  significance  is,  when  it  is  the  response 
to  an  affirmation,  "  That  is  truth,  and  I  believe  it." 

It  is  proper  to  remark,  in  closing,  that  a  strong  will-force 
makes  no  more  exertion  in  a  silent  curative  effort,  directed 
to  ourselves  or  others,  than  the  mind  makes  in  believing  and 
affirming  that  two  and  two  are  four.  All  labored  effort,  all 
strain,  all  struggling  is  not  will,  but  the  lack  of  it.  We 
should  recognize  the  fact,  the  eternal  verity,  that  the  thing 
to  be  done,  as  the  cure  of  a  malady,  or  anything  that  may  be 
viewed  as  the  "good  pleasure"  of  God,  is  from  this  very 
fact,  in  an  effort  to  become  an  actuality.  And  the  attitude  of 
the  will  towards  it  is  properly  expressed  by  the  word  fiat, 
which  means  "  let  it  be  done  or  become."  "If  we  ask  any- 
thing according  to  his  will,  we  know  that  he  boareth  us." 


THE   PKIMITIVE   MTND-CURE.  135 

(I  John  v:  14.)  The  thing  to  be  done,  the  object  to  be 
effected  is  like  a  spiral  spring  which  is  pressed  down  by  a 
weight  laid  upon  it.  Yet  there  is  a  tendency  in  it  to  rise, 
and  it  will  do  so,  and  assume  its  cone-like  form  as  soon  as 
the  obstruction  is  removed.  We  are  potcntiall}'  already  what 
we  ideally  aspire  to  and  long  for,  and  will  some  tune  become 
so  actually.     For  an  idea  that  has  life  in  it  will  assert  itself. 

All  the  volition  that  is  necessary  in  making  a  psychological 
impression  upon  a  patient  is  that  of  a  wish  or  benevolent 
desire,  expressing  itself  in  an  afDrmation.  This  is  the 
radical  meaning  of  the  word  volition,  from  the  Latin  volo,  to 
wish.  This  adds  to  the  thought  —  the  mere  intellectual  con- 
ception —  an  element  of  life-force.  The  influence  of  desire 
or  emotion  is  to  give  intensity  to  the  thought,  to  render  it 
more  vivid,  or  living,  as  the  word  means.  Desire  alone  is 
powerless  ;  and  thought  alone  is  lifeless  and  ineflicient.  They 
must  be  combined  into  a  harmonious  unity.  In  the  language 
of  the  Hermetic  philosoph}',  they  must  be  made  into  a  cross, 
in  which  the  upright  line  is  the  intellect,  and  the  horizontal 
or  base  line  is  the  love  or  the  emotional  nature.  This  makes 
a  living  force,  what  Swedenborg  calls  the  power  of  truth 
from  good.  It  may  be  represented  by  the  light  of  winter 
which  is  in  excess  of  heat,  and  the  life  of  the  world  is  then 
dormant.  In  spring,  the  light,  which  answers  to  the  truth, 
is  equally  combined  with  heat,  which  corresponds  to  love, 
and  everything  starts  into  life.  In  every  genuine  act  of 
faith  there  is  a  union  of  thought  and  emotion,  or  an  intellec- 
tual conception  and  a  feeling  that  it  is  true.  This  is  what 
makes  it  the  "  word  of  power." 

It  is  taught  in  one  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindus,  the 
Atharva-Veda,  that  the  exercise  of  such  loill-power  is  the  highest 
form  of  prayer,  and  it  is  instantaneously  answered.  For  we 
realize  in  proportion  to  the  intensity  of  our  desire  and  the 
strength  of  our  faith  freed  from  all  doubt.  For  desire  is  the 
incipiency  of  the  thing  or  state  desired,  and  faith  is  its  full 
fruition. 


136  THE  FBIMITIYE  MHOJ-CUBB. 


CHAPTER  XVn. 

THE    UNIVERSAL    LIFE-PRINCIPLE,  AND   ITS   OCCULT  PROPERTIES 
AND   USES. 

We  see  everywhere  in  nature  the  indications  of  a  universal 
and  intelligent  force  which  governs  the  world.  We  behold, 
in  whatever  way  we  look, 

"  The  tokens  of  a  central  force, 
Whose  circles,  in  their  widening  course, 
O'erlap  and  move  the  universe." 

It  is  the  common  bond  and  life  of  nature,  and  exhibits  a 
conatus  to  repair  the  hurts  of  every  living  thing,  —  of  plants 
and  animals,  from  the  mushroom  to  the  sovereign  of  an 
empire.  It  is  the  office  of  the  physician  to  influence,  direct, 
and  control  the  universal  principle  of  life,  to  come  to  its  aid  in 
its  curative  endeavor,  and  to  intensify  its  action  and  diminish 
or  increase  its  quaiitum.  Says  Lord  Lytton,  who,  if  not  an 
adept,  was  deeply  versed  in  the  arcane  philosophy  of  the 
East,  "To  all  animate  bodies  there  must  be  one  principle  in 
common,  —  the  vital  principle  itself.  What  if  there  be  one 
certain  means  of  recruiting  this  principle?  And  what  if 
that  secret  can  be  discovered  ?  "  {A  Strange  Story,  p.  104.) 
Van  Helmont,  to  whom  science  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  the 
world  has  never  paid,  was  the  discoverer  of  hydrogen  gas, 
and  he  affirms  that  the  life-principle  is  of  the  natiu-e  of  a 
gas,  a  word  which  etymologically  signifies  spirit,  like  the 
German  geist.  In  this  sense,  that  of  a  universally  diffused 
and  omnipresent  and  omniactive  substance  of  life,  the  asser- 
tion of  Van  Helmont  was  made,  and  only  in  this  sense  can 


UNIVERSll  Y  j) 

THE   PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURBT ""  137 

it  be  accepted.  It  is  stored  up  in  exhaustless  and  overflow- 
ing abundance  in  the  bosom  of  nature.  It  cannot  be 
destroyed,  or  increased,  or  diminished.  It  cannot  be  created 
or  annihilated.  It  is  one  and  indivisible,  and  can  be  con- 
trolled in  its  lower  dcgi-ees  of  manifestation  by  the  intelli- 
gent will  of  man,  which  is  the  highest  form  of  its  develop- 
ment and  expression.  It  is  identical  with  what  is  called 
magnetism,  which  is  a  word  of  Persian  origin,  and  signifies 
the  "  wisdom-principle."  The  life-principle  is  in  itself 
without  quality,  and  is  a  blind  force  obedient  to  a  control- 
ling influence.  It  is  submissive  to  the  will  of  the  spiritual 
man,  and  servilely  obeys  it.  It  acts  according  to  the  direc- 
tion given  to  it  by  our  imagination,  and  tends  to  realize  our 
idea,  as  the  hand  and  brush  of  the  painter  follow  the  image 
which  they  copy  from  his  mind.  Of  this  universal  life-prin- 
ciple Madam  Blavatsky  observes  :  "  We  breathe  and  imbibe 
it  into  our  organic  system  with  every  mouthful  of  fresh  air. 
Our  organism  is  full  of  it  from  the  instant  of  our  birth, 
but  it  becomes  potential  only  under  the  influx  of  will  and 
spirit"  (Ms  Unveiled,  vol.  i.,  p.  616.)  This  invisible  and 
ubiquitous  life-principle,  the  anima  mundi  of  Plato,  and  the 
magnetic  agent,  has  occult  properties  and  potencies  in  it  that 
few  know  anything  about.  It  obeys  our  thoughts  and  takes 
quality  from  them.  It  answers  to  the  human  voice,  and 
yields  to  the  impulse  of  our  will,  and  even  understands  the 
meaning  of  traced  signs  and  motions  of  the  hand,  especially 
if  they  are  correspondences.  However  incredible  this  may 
seem,  it  is  nevertheless  true,  as  Baron  Du  Potet,  the  prince 
of  modern  magnetists,  affirms.  But  why  should  it  not  be 
so,  since  the  rational  soul  of  man,  the  immortal  psyche,  is 
only  the  highest  expression  of  the  universal  soul  or  the  intel- 
ligent life-principle  in  nature?  And  when  the  soul  is  closely 
united  to  this  universal  force  it  possesses,  if  we  only  but  knew 
it,  a  marvellous  power.  It  is  then,  as  it  were,  the  general  in 
command  of  the  universal  living  energy  to  direct  it  to  the 


138  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

accomplishment  of  a  desired  result.  Life  is  ever3'where. 
A  desire  of  recovery  is  a  search  after  life,  and  this,  aa 
Emerson  sa^'S  of  power,  is  an  element  with  which  the  world 
is  so  saturated  —  there  being  no  chink  or  crevice  in  which  it 
is  not  lodged  —  that  no  honest  seeking  need  go  unrewarded. 
All  matter  is  animated  and  acted  upon  by  invisible  agencies, 
of  which  heat  and  light  are  the  most  apparent.  But  these  are 
only  expressions  on  the  plane  of  sense  of  the  invisible  and 
imponderable  life-principle.  Heat  in  its  spiritual  essence  is 
a  feeling,  and  light  is  truth. 

"  This  conscious  life,  is  it  the  same 
Which  thrills  the  universal  frame, 
Whereby  the  caverned  crystal  shoots, 
And  mounts  the  sap  from  forest  roots, 
Whereby  the  exiled  wood-bird  tells 
When  spring  makes  green  her  native  dells  ? 
How  feels  the  stone  the  pang  of  birth 
Which  brings  its  sparkling  prism  forth  ? 
The  forest  tree  the  throb  which  gives 
The  life-blood  to  its  new-born  leaves  ?  " 

( Whittier.) 

In  his  "Coming  Race,"  a  work  which  contains  many  hints 
respecting  the  Oriental  occult  science.  Lord  Lytton  denomi- 
nates the  universal  life-principle  and  primal  force,  which  the 
Hindu  adepts  call  the  akasa,  by  the  unusual  name  of  vril, 
and  says  that  in  vril  his  underground  people  thought  that 
"they  had  arrived  at  the  unity  in  natural  energetic  agen- 
cies." Like  the  akasa  of  the  Hindu  transcendental  science, 
it  is  a  sort  of  "  atmospheric  magnetism,"  and  controllable  by 
the  imagination  and  will  of  man.  It  is  the  "  occult  air"  of 
the  Kabalists,  and  is  called  by  the  Jewish  prophets  "  the 
breath  of  God"  and  "the  breath  of  life."  Its  nature, 
hidden  properties,  the  laws  of  its  action,  and  how  to  control 
it,  was  undoubtedly  a  part  of  the  esoteric  teaching  in  the 
prophetic  schools.  It  is  cleaHy  mentioned  in  the  celebrated 
vision  of  the  di-y  bones  in  Ezekiel,  "Come  from  the  four 


THE    PRIBIITIVE    jnND-CURE.  139 

winds,  O  breath,  and  breathe  upon  these  slain,  and  they  shall 
live."  (Ezek.  xxxvii:9.)  Is  it  true  that  this  subtle  and 
universal  element  of  life  will  come  at  our  call,  and  can  we 
give  it  quality  and  modify  its  action?  If  so,  it  is  the  most 
important  thing  that  medical  philosophy  can  teach.  Of  the 
occult  philosopher  Harouu  of  Aleppo,  Lord  L3^tton  says : 
"  He  had  discovered  the  great  principle  of  animal  life,  which 
had  hitherto  baffled  the  subtlest  anatomist,  and  provided  only 
that  the  great  organs  were  not  irreparably  destroyed,  there 
was  no  disease  that  he  could  not  cure,  no  decrepitude  to 
which  he  could  not  restore  vigor ;  yet  his  science  was  based 
on  the  same  theory  as  that  espoused  b}'  the  best  professional 
practitioners  of  medicine,  viz.,  that  the  true  art  of  healing  is 
to  assist  nature  to  throw  off  the  disease,  —  to  summon,  as  it 
were,  the  whole  system  to  eject  the  enemy  that  had  fastened 
on  a  part.  And  thus  his  processes,  though  occasionally 
varying  in  the  means  employed,  all  combined  in  this,  viz., 
the  reinvigorating  and  recruiting  of  the  principle  of  life." 
(A  Strange  Story,  p.  186.) 

"The  universal  substance,"  sajs  Eliphas  Levi,  ^^  with  its 
double  motion  (its  active  and  reactive  properties) ,  is  the  great 
arcanum  of  being."  This  is  profoundly  true.  This  preex- 
istent  and  invisible  essence  of  things  which  we  call  life,  this 
elemental  and  universal  substance,  is  often  latent  in  nature, 
and  is  without  form  or  quality  in  itself,  but  receives  quality 
from  our  imagination  or  thought,  just  as  water  takes  form 
from  the  glass  vessel  that  contains  it.  ^c  see  illustrations 
of  this  in  the  life  of  men.  If  a  person  swallows  a  few  drops 
of  water,  or  a  pill  made  of  bread  crumbs,  thinking  it  a  cathar- 
tic medicine,  it  will  give  to  it  that  quality,  and  it  will  quicken 
the  peristaltic  movement  of  the  intestinal  canal.  Thought 
has  power  to  alter  the  nature  of  things  so  as  to  radically 
change  their  quality.  This  is  implied  in  the  promise  of 
Jesus,  that,  if  we  believe,  or  have  faith,  to  drink  any  deadly 
thiui;  will  not  harm  us.     Thus  Paul  overcame  the  otherwise 


140  THE    PRUnXIVE    MIND-CURE. 

fatal  bite  and  poison  of  the  viper.  Jesus  also  says,  "Be  it 
unto  thee  according  to  thy  faith  "  ;  but  faith  is  only  a  mode 
of  thought.  The  passive  life-principle  of  the  human  body 
and  of  all  things  is  as  sensitive  to  the  influence  of  thought 
and  imagination  as  the  mercury  in  the  bulb  of  the  thermome- 
ter or  barometer  is  to  atmospheric  changes.  This  universal 
life-principle  and  primordial  substance  has  an  affinity  for  our 
inward  character,  as  some  one  has  said,  and  is  en  rapport 
with  the  purposes  which  we  wish  to  effect  by  it,  — as  the  relief 
of  pain  and  the  cure  of  disease.  Our  minds  and  wills  can 
give  quality  to  it ;  and  by  the  projectile  power  of  the  mind, 
and  by  a  thought-impulse,  a  current  or  tendency  of  it  can  be 
determined  upon  the  body  of  another,  to  recruit  and  augment 
his  vital  energy.  B}'^  certain  movements  of  the  hands,  which 
are  but  the  expression  of  our  thoughts,  we  can  cause  it  to 
accumulate  in  the  brain,  and  the  whole  physical  organism  or 
any  part  of  it,  and  its  invigorating  effects  will  sometimes 
border  on  the  marvellous.  The  reinforcing  the  vital  power 
of  the  whole  system  is  the  shortest  and  most  du-ect  way  of 
curing  any  diseased  part.  The  air  and  the  water  contain  aU 
the  invisible  essences  of  things,  that  from  which  all  plants  and 
minerals  arise,  and  of  which  they  are,  so  to  speak,  only  con- 
densations, ox  precipitations^  so  that  they  become  manifest  to 
our  crude  senses.  We  see  granite  rock  floating  in  the  air  in 
the  form  of  dust.  But  there  is  an  invisible,  imponderable 
dust,  or  primal  stuff,  or  substance,  —  the  mysterious  clay  of 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  —  out  of  which  dust  the  body  of 
man  was  and  is  formed,  and  to  which  it  returns.  These 
spiritual  virtues  and  living  principles  of  things  are  control- 
lable by  the  will,  faith,  and  imagination  of  man,  and  can, 
with  any  quality  our  thought  may  give  them,  be  determined 
upon  the  body  or  any  of  its  organs.  The}'  can  also  be 
infused  into  any  inert  substances,  as  milk-sugar,  or  water, 
or  even  paper,  and  tliey  become  invested  with  the  peculiar 
properties  of  any  herb  or  drug.     But  all  this  lies  within  the 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  141 

unexplored  domaiu  of  the  occult  science  of  medicine.  In  an 
old  work  by  a  Scotch  physician  b}-  the  name  of  Maxwell,  enti- 
tled "  Medicina  Magnetica,"  and  published  at  Frankfort  in 
1679,  it  is  said  :  "  That  which  men  call  the  world  spirit  (the 
welt-geist  of  the  German,  the  anima  mundi  of  the  Platonic 
philosophy)  is  a  life,  as  fire,  spiritual,  fleet,  subtle,  and  ethe- 
real as  light  itself.  It  is  a  life-spirit  everywhere,  and  ever}'- 
where  the  same  ;  and  this  is  the  common  bond  of  all  quarters 
of  the  earth,  and  lives  through  and  in  all. 

"  If  thou  canst  avail  thyself  of  this  spirit  and  accumulate 
it  in  particular  bodies,  thou  wilt  receive  no  trifling  benefit 
from  it,  for  therein  consists  all  the  mystery  of  magic  (or 
magnetism).  This  spirit  is  found  in  nature  free  from  all 
fetters ;  and  he  who  understands  how  to  unite  it  to  a  har- 
monizing body  possesses  a  treasure  which  exceeds  all 
riches." 

"  He  who  knoivs  how  to  operate  on  men  by  this  spirit  can 
heal,  and  this  at  any  distance  he  pleases."  {Ennemoser's  His- 
tory of  Magic,  Vol.  II.,  p.  258.)  This  brief  extract  contains 
the  key  to  the  mystery  of  healing  by  magnetism,  and  by 
mental  forces  and  agencies.  The  true  magnetic  healer  has 
learned  the  nature  and  properties  of  the  universal  divine  life- 
principle,  and  how  to  influence  its  action.  It  is  an  exalted 
science  in  its  higher  applications,  and  will  be  rescued  from 
its  present  degradation,  and  restored  to  its  ancient  dignity  as 
the  science  of  sciences.  It  was  once  called  magic,  a  word 
which  signifies  wisdom,  for  it  was  a  true  spiritual  philosophy, 
founded  upon  immutable  and  eternal  principles,  and  was 
practised  by  many  of  the  noblest  and  divinest  men  the  world 
ever  saw. 


142  THK   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUKE. 


CHAPTER  XVni. 

THE   UNIVERSAL  ETHER    OF    SCIENCE,    AND   THE   JETHER   OF   THE 
HERMETIC    PHILOSOPHY. 

Magnetism,  as  the  universal  life-principle,  and  that  by 
which  God  is  present  and  acts  in  nature,  is  in  a  perpetual 
effort  to  ultimate  or  actualize  the  divine  idea  of  things  in 
material  forms.  This  effort  we  believe  can  be  aided,  and  its 
operation  greatly  accelerated,  by  the  intelligent  will  and  im- 
agination of  man.  When  I  think  that  a  patient  is  well,  or 
is  getting  well,  —  and  this  is  true,  as  has  been  shown  before, 
of  his  immortal  self  or  spiritual  entity,  —  the  thought  by  an 
occult  law  takes  form  in  an  idea,  in  the  Logos  or  Divine 
Truth,  as  Swedenborg  would  call  it,  which  is  a  spiritual  and 
living  substance.  But  this  idea  will  take  a  more  external 
shape  in  the  universal  soul-life  of  nature,  the  primal  sub- 
stance or  cosmic  matter.  It  then  becomes  a  real  creation, 
an  ideal  entity,  a  thing  of  the  unseen  world.  But  the  soul 
of  the  patient  is  a  part  of  the  soul  of  the  world  and  not  dis 
connected  from  it ;  and  on  his  soul  the  ideal  picture  may  be 
photographed,  and  it  will  still  tend  outward  by  a  force  pro- 
portioned to  the  intensity  of  the  original  thought  and  vivid- 
ness of  the  idea,  until  it  translates  itself  into  a  full  bodilj' 
expression,  or  creates  the  physical  organism  into  its  own 
image.  "An  idea,"  says  Plutarch,  "is  a  being  (or  thing) 
incorporeal,  which  has  no  subsistence  by  itself,  but  gives 
figure  and  form  unto  shapeless  matter,  and  becomes  the 
cause  of  its  manifestation."  (De  Placitio  Philosophormn.) 
The  cosmic  matter,  the  primal  stuff  of  which  all  things  are 
made  (and  which  is  recoguizcd  in  science  as  the  universal 


THE    FRIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE.  143 

flether) ,  and  which  is  the  same  everywhere  and  in  all  things 
in  the  universe,  is  of  itself  loilhout  form  or  quality.  It  is  the 
original  chaos.  It  only  receives  form  and  quality  from  ideas 
vjhich  are  in  mind  only.  Hence  it  is  that  mind  shapes  mat- 
ter, and  gives  it  all  its  properties.  This  universally  diffused 
principle,  the  great  magnetic  agent,  and  which  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  called  the  divine  sensorium  (for  it  is  really  the  seat 
of  all  sensation) ,  is  the  anima  mundi,  the  soul  of  the  world. 
The  animal  soul  of  man  is  an  individualized  expression  of  it, 
and  through  it  we  are  connected  in  sympathy  with  all  other 
souls,  and  all  the  objects  of  nature,  even  to  the  stars  and  all 
the  heavenly  bodies.  Newton  says  of  it  in  his  "Fundamental 
Principles  of  Natural  Philosophy' "  :  "Here  the  question  is  of 
a  very  subtle  spirit,  which  penetrates  through  all,  even  the 
hardest  bodies,  and  which  is  concealed  in  their  substance. 
Through  the  strength  and  activity  of  this  spirit  (or  immate- 
rial substance)  bodies  attract  each  other,  and  adhere  to- 
gether when  brought  into  contact.  Through  it  electrical 
bodies  operate  at  the  remotest  distance,  as  well  as  near  at 
hand,  attracting  and  repelling  (he  might  have  said  that  in 
it  and  by  it  distance  is  annihilated,  and  all  objects  touch 
each  other)  ;  thi'ough  this  spirit  (or  intelligent,  nn.-material 
substance),  light  also  flows  and  is  refracted  and  reflected, 
and  warms  bodies.  All  senses  are  excited  by  this  sjnrit,  and 
through  it  the  animals  move  their  limbs.  But  these  things 
cannot  be  explained  in  few  words,  and  we  have  not  yet  sufll- 
cient  experience  to  determine  full}'  the  laws  by  which  this 
universal  spirit  operates."  Thus  far  and  no  farther  can 
modern  science  go.  But  the  Archaic  or  Hermetic  pliiloso- 
phy  gives  to  the  universal  cether  certain  occult  metaphysical 
properties,  with  which  it  was  familiar,  but  of  which  our  mod- 
ern materialistic  science  is  totally  ignorant.  The  word  is 
from  aiOio  (aitho),  to  burn,  to  shine.  This  aether,  according 
to  Pythagoras,  Empedocles,  Plato,  Hj-ppasus,  Heraclitus, 
Hippocrates,  and  all  the  oldest  philosophers,  was  viewed  as 


144  THE    PKIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

a  divine,  luminous  principle  or  substance,  which  psrmeates, 
and  at  the  same  time  contains  all  things  in  it.  It  was  called 
by  the  Hermetic  philosophers  the  astral  light,  which  signifies 
not  star-light,  as  the  word  would  seem  to  indicate,  but  the 
feminine  wisdom-principle,  it  being  from  the  same  root  as 
Astarte  and  Ashtaroth.  It  is  a  spiritual  fire  that  does  not 
burn.  In  the  treatise  on  the  Nature  of  the  Gods  (Lib.  ii.,  c. 
36) ,  Cicero  says :  Aerem  amplectatur  immensus  CBtJier,  qui 
constat,  exaltissimis  ignibus,  the  immensurable  aether,  which 
consists  of  the  most  subtle  and  exalted  fire  or  flame,  embra- 
ces the  air.  Also  Apuleius  ("  De  Mundo")  says:  Coelum 
ipsum  stellasque  colligens,  omnisque  siderum  compago,  CBther 
vocatur,  non  lit  quidem  putant  quod  ignitus  sit  et  incensus, 
sed  quod  cursibus  rapidis  semper  rotatur.  The  aether  is  that 
in  which  all  thiugs  exist  when  we  get  round  to  their  immate- 
rial side.  All  life  is  compared  to  a  flame,  and  the  soul  is 
poetically,  but  truly  said  to  be  a  vital  spark  of  heavenly  fire. 
AU  growing  things  assume  the  flame  form,  as  leaves  and 
grasses.  The  aether  is  the  unparticled  substance,  of  which 
all  things  are  made,  and  to  which  they  return.  The  fire  of 
which  John  the  Baptist  speaks,  the  baptismal  flame,  is  iden- 
tical with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  is  the  universal  aether  of 
occult  philosophy  ;  for  it  was  not  viewed  as  material  in  the 
common  acceptation  of  the  term.  In  the  Book  of  Hermes, 
called  Pimander,  which  signifies  the  Divine  Thought,  it  is 
said  :  "  The  light  is  I.  I  am  the  nous  or  intelligence,  and  I 
am  thy  god,  and  I  am  far  older  than  the  human  principle 
which  escapes  from  the  shadow.  I  am  the  germ  of  thought, 
the  resplendent  Word,  the  Son  of  God.  Think  that  what 
thus  sees  and  hears  in  thee,  is  the  Verbum  of  the  Master, 
it  is  the  Thought  wliich  is  God  the  Father.  The  celestial 
ocean,  the  ather,  which  flows  from  east  to  zuest,  is  the  Breath 
of  the  Father,  the  life-giving  principle,  the  Holy  Ghost." 

The  universal  aether,   according  to   the   authors   of  that 
remarkable  book,  the  "Unseen  Universe,"  is  the  repository 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIKD-CURE.  145 

of  the  spiritual  images  of  all  living  things,  and  even  human 
thoughts.  All  things  that  ever  were,  that  are,  or  ever  will 
be,  all  that  was  ever  said  or  written,  thought  and  felt,  leaves 
its  record  upon  this  imperishable  tablet  of  the  unseen  world ; 
and  the  truly  spiritual  man,  by  using  the  vision  of  his  own 
spirit,  may  read  it  there,  and  know  all  that  has  been  known 
or  can  be  known  ;  for  it  still  exists  in  the  universal  princi- 
ple, which  is  the  Apocalyptic  "  book  of  life,"  and  the  myste- 
rious "tree  of  knowledge"  of  Genesis,  and  the  memory  of 
God. 

It  is  one  of  the  fundamental  ideas  of  the  work  mentioned 
above,  that  "thought  affects  the  matter  (or  substance)  of 
another  world  simultaneously  with  this,"  and  the  missing  link 
connecting  mind  and  matter  is  thus  found,  and  the  great  law 
of  continuity  is  maintained.  A  blow  on  the  body  of  another 
affects  not  merely  the  external  shell,  but  goes  deeper,  and 
wounds  and  scars  the  primitive  matter  of  the  body.  So  a 
treatment  given  to  another  in  kindness  and  a  desire  to  heal, 
affects  the  inner  man,  and  through  that  tends  to  form  the 
external  body  into  the  image  of  health  and  divine  harmony. 

A  thought  impulse  can  affect  and  set  in  motion  the  univer- 
sal aether,  the  life-principle.  It  can  create  a  current  in  the 
astral  light,  the  icelt-geist  of  the  German,  and  give  it  quality, 
and  direct  it  to  a  person  near  at  hand,  or  send  it  as  a  sana- 
tive influence  to  any  distance.  Few  persons  know  of  the 
marvellous  power  that  lies  latent  and  slumbering  in  human 
nature  ;  and  it  is  well  it  is  so. 

Our  thoughts  and  feeUngs  are  not  the  evanescent  things 
they  are  supposed  to  be,  but  they  record  themselves  on  this 
unseen  tablet,  and  create  a  current,  or,  as  it  were,  an  eddy- 
ing sphere,  in  the  universal  aether  or  life.  The  prevailing 
mode  of  thinking  and  predominant  feelings  of  an  age  or  cora- 
munit}'  create  a  current  or  tendency  in  the  world's  life  that 
bears  us  on  with  it,  and  it  is  hard  to  row  against  the  stream. 
This  is  what  js  called  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  the  icorldy 


146  THE    PRUnTITE    MIND-CURE. 

which  is  viewed  as  the  antagonist  of  the  spiritual  life.  "  Ye 
are  not  of  the  world,  but  I  have  chosen  you  out  of  the 
world,"  by  which  is  not  meant  the  earth,  but  the  general 
current  of  thought  and  feeling  in  the  age  and  country  where 
we  live.  To  the  spiritual  eye  most  souls  are  seen  floating  in 
it  like  the  dead  and  withered  leaves  of  autumn  upon  the  sur- 
face of  a  swollen  and  muddy  stream.  To  take  a  patient  and 
lift  him  out  of  this  current  of  established  beliefs  and  con- 
firmed illusions,  is  the  Herculean  task  before  the  true  physi- 
cian. When  one  is  sick  in  any  degree,  the  general  current 
of  the  world's  life  leads  him  to  think  that  he  must  take  some- 
thing, or  do  something.  There  is  only  one  way  in  which  we 
can  not  only  stem  this  flood,  but  rise  entirely  out  of  it  into  a 
higher  stratum  of  thought  and  feeling,  and  that  is  through 
the  power  of  an  intelligent  faith.  "  This  is  the  victory  that 
overcometh  the  world,  even  your  faith."  (I  John  iv:4.) 
"  And  to  him  that  overcometh,  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  tree 
of  life  which  is  in  the  Paradise  of  God."  (Rev.  ii :  7.)  This 
is  purely  Kabalistic,  but  full  of  meaning  to  him  who  has  the 
key  to  it.  The  garden  of  God,  according  to  the  old  science 
of  correspondence,  signifies  spiritual  wisdom  and  its  delights. 
"The  tree  of  life"  is  the  Kabalistic  Adam  Kadmon,  the 
primal  and  universal  spiritual  man,  the  true  maxiimis  homo, 
or  greatest  man,  of  the  Scandinavian  seer.  To  eat  of  this 
tree  is  to  come  into  direct  communication  with  the  centi-al 
fountain  of  all  manifested  life,  that  from  which  all  exist- 
ence springs,  and  to  wliich  it  seeks  to  return.  This  is  the 
elixir  of  life,  "  the  spiritual  essence  of  silver"  of  the  Alche- 
mists and  Hermetic  philosophers.  The  tree  of  life  of  the 
Kabala  was  represented  with  its  roots  upwards  and  branches 
downwards.  So  we  need  to  be  taken  up  from  our  present 
inverted  condition, —  the  illusory  life  of  sense,  —  and  trans- 
planted into  the  garden  of  God,  and  ])lanted  with  the  spiritual 
root  of  our  l)eing  upward,  and  we  shall  bear  fruit  downward. 
We   shall  receive   influx  from  above,   and  no  longer  from 


THE   PRIMITIVE    MrND-CUKE.  147 

beneath,  from  the  mephitic  vapors  of  the  Stygian  lake.  Then 
we  reach  the  secret  of  a  long  life  in  that  tranquillity  of  mind 
which  results  from  a  life  above  the  world,  or  that  sphere  or 
current  of  mental  disorder  that  constitutes  the  life  of  men  in 
general.  It  is  on  this  plane  alone  that  disease  (which  in  its 
essence  is  discontent,  dissatisfaction)  can  exist.  On  the 
spiritual  plane  we  look  down  upon  it,  like  earthly  fogs  seen 
from  the  summit  of  a  mountain. 

In  closing  this  lesson  I  would  remark  that  things  become 
necessary  to  the  sustenance  or  maintenance  of  life  in  propor- 
tion as  they  become  more  and  more  subtle  and  interior. 

1.  We  have  the  mineral  and  earthy  elements  in  our  food. 
A  due  proportion  of  these  is  essential  to  the  preservation  of 
the  integrity  of  the  corporeal  structure. 

2.  Water,  which  is  an  element  less  gross  than  minerals, 
and  we  can  live  longer  without  food  than  we  can  without 
water. 

3.  The  air,  which  is  more  subtle  than  the  aqueous  element 
and  a  thousand  times  more  necessary  to  life. 

4.  Lastly,  the  universal  £ether,  the  principle  of  life  itself, 
and  the  universal  magnetic  agent. 

We  must  caution  the  reader  against  taking  a  too  material 
conception  of  this  subtle  principle,  as  is  done  b}'  modern 
science,  but  was  not  done  in  the  ancient  Ilermetic  philosophy. 
This  is  the  "  one  thing  needful,"  a  designation  applied  to  it 
in  the  old  spiritual  science,  and  often  recurring  in  the  writ- 
ings of  the  Alchemists  of  all  ages,  and  also  employed  by 
Jesus  in  his  conversation  with  Martha.  (Luke  x:  38-42.) 
It  is  that  rema  or  emanation  from  God,  from  which  man  lives 
more  than  from  bread.     (Luke  iv  :  4.) 


148  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND -CUBE. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE     MOTHER     PRINCIPLE    OF    THINGS,  AND     ITS     USE    IN    SELF- 
HEALING. 

The  universal  life-principle  in  its  latent  state  is  the  pri- 
mal matter  and  cosmic  substance,  and  fills  all  space,  and 
connects  all  worlds.  It  pervades  and  contains  the  air,  as 
the  air  contains  the  water,  and  the  water  the  earth.  We 
inhale  it  with  every  breath,  aud  in  it  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being.  But  it  is  "without  form  and  void"  of 
quality.  It  is  pure  existence^  and  to  it  properties  and  qual- 
ities are  given  by  thought  alone.  To  it  any  quality  can  be 
given  by  the  imagination  as  we  breathe  it  in.  It  is  the 
mother  principle,  the  feminine  creative  potency,  the  passive 
power  in  nature,  and  is  co-eternal  with  spirit,  of  which  it  is 
the  correlative  opposite.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the 
word  mother  and  matter  are  nearly  identical  in  most  of  the 
languages  of  the  world.  In  Latin  we  have  mater  and 
materia,  the  matter,  stuff,  or  material  of  which  anything  is 
made.  In  Italian,  madre  signifies  mother,  cause,  origin, 
root,  spring,  and  mould  for  castings.  In  the  latter  sense,  the 
mother  principle  is  the  universal  matrix.  In  Spanish  we 
have  madre,  mother,  and  materia,  matter.  In  Portuguese, 
madre  means  mother  and  the  mould  for  castings.  Even  in 
the  Irish,  mathair  means  mother  and  also  matter.  This  pri- 
mal matter  is  the  mother  principle,  or  feminine  passive  ray, 
emanating  from  the  "  Uulcnown."  It  is  the  universal  mould 
in  which  all  ideas  take  shape.  It  is  represented  in  the  Jew- 
ish cosmogony  by  Eve  (or  lieva),  "  the  mother  of  all  living 
things,"  the  very  name  signifying  completeness  and  fulness 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  149 

of  life.  The  feminine  principle  of  things  is  not  absolutely 
passive,  but  its  characteristic  is  reaction.  The  quality  which 
we  impress  by  our  thought  upon  this  universal  life-princii)lc, 
it  takes,  and  it  is  reflected  back  with  it  in  the  respiration. 
The  sun  shines  by  its  own  light,  and  the  feminine  moon 
reflects.  There  is  an  occult  air,  immaterial  and  impercepti 
ble  to  any  of  the  gross  external  senses,  but  most  vitally  real, 
for  things  increase  in  reality  as  they  come  nearer  to  the 
central  point  of  existence.  "This  air,"  says  the  Kabala, 
"  is  the  most  occult  (occuUissimus)  attribute  of  the  Deity." 
It  is  identical  with  the  akasa  of  the  Hindu  philosophy.  In 
its  latent  state  it  is  the  universal  aether,  the  air  of  immensity, 
"  an  unburning  vivific  flame."  It  is  the  Shekinah  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  a  feminine  life-principle.  The  Shekinah  is  that 
subtle  light,  or  divine  luminous  substance,  or  visible  glory, 
which  was  a  symbol  and  vehicle  of  the  divine  presence.  It 
was  the  sacred  fii-e  of  the  Persians,  and  the  Astral  light  of 
the  Rosicrucians.  This  primal,  every wliere-present  principle, 
or  immaterial  substance,  is  the  universal  matrix  in  which  the 
ideas  of  the  intellect  take  form  and  become  to  our  minds 
and  senses  visible  entities.  In  the  Hindu  theosophy,  the 
grandest  system  of  metaphysics  the  world  has  ever  seen,  it 
is  called  Nari  and  Mariama,  the  universal  mother.  It  was 
symbolized  by  the  Lotus ;  and  Brahm,  the  active  masculine 
potency  seated  on  the  Lotus  floating  on  the  water  creates 
the  world.  In  the  Egyptian  philosophy  it  was  called  Isis, 
and  the  attributes  and  names  given  to  it,  the  Roman  Catholic 
system  has  borrowed  and  given  to  Mary,  which  name  means 
the  sea  as  a  feminine  principle.  In  the  Archaic  wisdom- 
religion  this  universal  principle  was  denominated  the  mother- 
soul  of  the  universe  and  the  astral  virgin,  which  waits  to  be 
fertilized  or  impregnated  by  the  intellect  or  male  potency. 
It  was  called  pure  essence,  the  mother  of  the  five  virtues, 
elements,  or  potencies  :  in  other  words,  the  primal  force  from 


150  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

which  all  the  forces  of  nature  spring.  She  was  also  called 
wise  motlier,  mirror  of  justice,  or  real  truth,  as  all  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  world  in  every  age  is  recorded  in  it  as  in  a  sealed 
book.  It  was  also  the  symbol  and  the  repository  of  the 
occult  science  of  the  ancient  sages,  and  represented  by  the 
ark.  Hence  Isis  was  veiled,  to  signify  that  this  spiritual 
science  and  mystic  wisdom  was  concealed  from  the  world  at 
large.  The  unveiling  of  Isis  was  the  revelation  of  the  hidden 
truths  of  the  arcane  philosophy.  Both  Nari  and  Isis  were 
called  womh  of  gold,  sistrum  of  gold,  and  virgin  queen  of 
heaven  —  caelum,  which  is  from  the  Greek  koilia,  the  belly, 
the  womb  of  the  universe,  signified  by  the  blue  vault  with  its 
mysterious  depths,  the  blue  ray  being  the  feminine  color.  She 
was  the  mother-soul  of  all  beings  and  things.  It  is  the  source 
of  all  celestial  Tight,  the  morning  star  of  the  Apocalypse 
(Rev.  ii :  28) ,  the  Syrian  Astarte,  the  Jewish  Astaroth,  and 
the  astral  light  of  the  Kabala. 

Creation,  as  we  have  said  before,  and  here  repeat,  is  a 
begetting ;  that  is,  it  is  the  union  of  the  male  principle  — 
pure  spirit,  the  nous  of  Plato,  the  primal  light  —  with  the 
feminine  principle,  the  Sophia,  the  prima  materia,  the  pure 
cosmic  immaterial  substance.  The  first  is  represented  by 
the  upright  line  or  descending  ray  ( 1 ) ,  and  the  latter,  by  the 
horizontal  or  base  line  ( — ) ,  and  the  union  of  the  two  forms 
the  cross  (-}-),  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  expressive  of 
religious  symbols.  "  All  that  is  created,"  says  the  Kabala, 
"  by  the  Ancient  of  the  Ancients,  can  live  and  exist  only  by 
a  male  and  a  female "  (principle) .  Thought  and  feeling, 
idea  and  sensation,  combine  to  make  a  thing,  a  concrete 
reality. 

The  most  ancient  name  of  the  Deity,  the  Mystic  designa- 
tion of  God,  and  found  in  all  the  Archaic  esoteric  religious 
philosophies,  expresses  this  truth.  It  was  lAO,  pronounced 
by  the  Jews  —  if  uttered  at  all  —  Yaho,  and  by  the  Samar- 
itans, Yava.    Its  significance  was  kept  absolutely  occult,  and 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  151 

deeply  veiled  from  the  multitude.  It  is  composed  of  the 
masculine  upright  line  (1)  as  the  one  or  unity,  and  the  fem- 
inine, ought  (0)  or  cypher.  The  two  in  combination  make 
the  number  ten  (10),  which,  in  its  symbolic  esoteric  sense, 
means  all,  and  fulness,  completeness,  the  Alpha  and  the 
Omega,  the  first  and  the  last,  and  all  between  the  extremes. 
"With  the  II  or  Ah^  the  aspirate  or  hreatlihuj,  which  mysti- 
cally signifies  breath,  soul,  life,  coming  between  the  mascu- 
line upright  and  the  representative  of  the  feminine  passive 
or  reactive  principle,  the  oval,  egg-shaped  ought,  the  San- 
scrit Sipliron,  it  teaches  that  all  things  that  live  and  exist, 
consciously  and  unconsciousl}',  are  generated  by  the  con- 
junction of  these  two  principles.  And  the  most  ancient 
name  of  God,  lAO,  means  that  He  is  the  All,  that  we  and 
all  other  creatures  are  included  in  his  Being,  and  that  "  he 
giveth  life,  and  breathy  and  all  things."  The  egg,  the  oval, 
the  cypher,  is  the  representative  of  the  feminine  universal 
life-principle  and  creative  potency,  and  it  was  a  tenet  of 
the  occult  philosophy,  that  all  things  are  produced  from 
an  egg.  But  the  cypher  by  itself  stands  for  nothing ;  in 
union  with  the  one  (pure  spirit)  it  means  all  things.  In  the 
Creation,  the  Divine  Spirit  brooded  over  the  "  face  of  the 
waters."  As  all  the  emotions  and  interior  feelings  are  ex- 
pressed in  the  face,  it  came  to  signify  the  inmost  pure 
essence  of  things.  Over  this  the  Spirit  brooded  and  gave 
it  form  and  quality.  But  man,  in  his  complete  being, 
reaches  from  the  last  (matter)  to  the  first  (spirit),  from 
earth  to  the  highest  heaven.  Our  spirits  can  imitate  the 
creative  act  of  the  Elohim.  Thought,  which  is  a  movement 
of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  man,  and  springs  out  of  the  unknown 
depths  of  the  Godhead,  can  act  on  this  universal  passive 
principle,  and  in  it,  it  will  take  form  in  an  idea,  which  is  a 
living  thing^  an  actual  creation  or  thing  begotten.  This 
universal  mother  principle  is  that  through  which  thought  ia 
made  effective. 


152  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUKE. 

Celestial  wisdom,  the  Divine  Sophia,  the  second  emana- 
tion of  the  Kabala,  by  a  law  of  correlation  or  correspon- 
dence, in  its  descent  downward,  or  its  passing  outward  from 
the  living  Point  (the  Centre  which  is  everywhere,  of  a  circle 
which  is  nowhere)  becomes  the  reactive  mother  principle  of 
nature,  the  cosmic  matter,  or  immaterial  substance,  the 
chaos,  the  hyle  of  Plato  and  the  Greeks,  the  prima  materia. 
It  is  tlie  Sakti  of  the  Buddhists,  the  sacred  presence,  the 
veil  of  God,  the  instrument  or  agent  of  the  active  power  and 
creative  energy  of  gods  and  men.  It  is  the  vehan  or  vehicle 
or  medium  of  communication  between  one  mind  and  another, 
and  through  which  a  psychological  impression  can  be  made, 
and  ideas  communicated  by  psychological  telegraphy  far 
and  near.  It  is  the  messenger  dove,  the  carrier  pigeon  of 
the  spirit,  the  invisible  and  everywhere  present,  and  divinely 
sensitive  silver  wire  through  which  a  thought  impulse  may 
be  transmitted  over  continents  and  across  oceans.  It  is  that 
by  which  God  is  present  in  the  world,  and  through  which  one 
spirit  may  be  present  to  another  spirit  a  thousand  miles 
away,  for  in  it,  distance  ceases  to  be,  and  aU  objects  may 
touch  and  communicate.  It  is  also  the  universal  principle 
of  sensation,  that  in  which  all  sensation  and  perception 
exist,  and  through  which  a  sensation  may  be  transmitted  any 
distance.  It  is  the  universal  eye,  the  all  hearing  ear,  and 
the  omnipresent  sense  of  feeling.  It  is  the  medium  of 
sympathy,  or  psychometry,  or  that  through  which  our  states 
aflfect  others,  and  our  feelings  become  infectious.  All  this, 
and  much  more,  is  true  of  it. 

This  knowledge  was  kept  for  ages  absolutely  occult,  and 
has,  for  wise  reasons,  been  concealed  from  the  rabble  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world.  It  was  taught  by  "the  wise 
men"  to  the  elected  few,  but  under  allegorical  forms  of 
expression  was  hidden  from  the  unthinking  multitudes,  to 
whom  it  was  not  given  to  know  the  mysteries  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  it  is  fully  known  only  to  a  chosen  few 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  153 

to-day.  It  still  belongs  to  that  wisdom  which  Paul  spoko 
only  among  the  perfect.  But  the  time  is  at  hand  when  it 
may  be  proper  to  unloose  the  seven  seals,  and  in  some  degree 
open  the  mystic  scroll  that  is  written  within  and  on  the 
backside  (Rev.  v:l).  And  the  knowledge  of  this  arcane 
philosophy  will  invest  the  soul  of  man  with  greatly  enlarged 
powers  of  doing  good,  and  of  "  working  the  works  of  God." 
In  the  possession  of  this  spiritual  science,  magnetism  be- 
comes the  wisdom-lore  of  the  ancient  sages,  —  the  knowledge 
of  spiritual  things,  and  their  relation  to  natural  things. 
Religion  becomes  the  recognition  of  the  Father  and  Mother 
sides  of  the  Divine  Being,  —  an  androgyne  Deity,  the  divine 
character  rounded  out  into  full-orbed  completeness,  and  not 
a  one-sided,  stern,  inflexible,  masculine  power  and  justice. 
And  heaven  itself,  with  its  angelic  hosts,  is  moved  up  from 
the  immense  remoteness,  where  the  theology  of  materialism 
has  placed  it,  into  actual  contact  with  men's  souls. 

In  our  "Western  theology,  the  masculine  side  of  the  divine 
nature  has  been  pushed  into  extreme  prominence,  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  feminine  side.  In  the  Hindu  system  the 
reverse  of  this  is  true,  and  Mozoomdar  boldly  affirms,  "  We 
believe  in  a  Mother  God."  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that 
among  them  the  Supreme  Divine  Essence,  the  Aditi  (from 
a,  not,  and  diti,  bounded),  is  feminine,  as  the  form  of  the 
Sanscrit  word  indicates.  Hence,  to  the  Hindu  mind,  the 
Absolute  Divinity  is  passive  and  responsive,  which  ought  to 
lay  a  firm  foundation  for  faith  in  prayer.  This  is  only 
another  way  of  saying,  "  God  is  love,"  as  love  is  the  femi- 
nine side  of  human  nature,  and  true  love  is  an  irrepi-essible 
inclination  and  impulse  to  give.  In  Swedenborg's  "  Science 
of  Correspondence,"  the  Father  signifies  the  Divine  Love, 
by  which  conception  the  sterner  features  of  the  Masculine 
Divinity  of  the  popular  theology  are  softened  into  mother- 
hood, and  the  God  we  adore  becomes  tenderly  responsive  to 
our  supplications,  as  the  maternal  instinct  with  loving  haste 


154  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

flies  to  the  rescue  of  her  waiting  child.  In  the  Roman  Cath« 
olic  Rehgion,  Mavy  is  worshipped  as  a  representative  of  the 
Universal  Mother,  and  thus  they  unconsciously  appeal  to 
the  Mother  nature  of  God,  and  have  accomplished  the  use 
of  keeping  alive  in  the  Western  mind  this  idea.  Among 
them,  Mary  is  the  healer,  and  thus  they  teach  without  know- 
ing it  a  great  truth.  There  is  in  God,  in  the  Christ,  in 
Jesus,  and  in  every  holy  and  truly  spiritual  being,  a  mascu- 
line and  feminine  element.  The  perfect  harmony  and  bal- 
ancing of  these  is  the  highest  condition  of  man.  But  it  is 
the  feminine  element  that  binds  up  the  hurts  of  every  living 
thing.  Nari,  Isis,  and  Mary  represent  the  maternal  side  of 
the  Divine  Being,  and  the  feminine  divine  life-principle  in 
nature.  The  original  trinity  was  not  that  of  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  but  was  expressed  by  the  relatious  of  Father, 
Mother,  and  Son.  This  is  given  us  in  the  "  Timaeus  "  of 
Plato,  but  came  from  the  much  older  philosophy  of  India. 
Each  discrete  degree  of  the  human  mind  is  dual ;  that  is, 
it  is  constituted  of  intellect,  and  sensibility  or  feeling,  a 
masculine  and  feminine  element  in  union.  So  in  the  Divine 
Mind  and  all  its  manifestations  and  incarnations.  Suppose, 
in  the  Christian  theology,  we  should  view  the  Holy  Spirit 
as  the  universal  Mother  element,  it  would  at  first  be  sus- 
pected of  heresy,  but  nevertheless  would  express  an  eternal 
truth.  But  such  is  the  fixedness  of  religious  opinions,  that 
the  bare  mention  of  the  divine  motherhood  in  God  is  deemed 
improper,  and  subjects  one  to  the  charge  of  being  "  a  setter 
forth  of  strange  gods."  But  everything  in  nature  is  dual. 
The  air  we  breathe  is  a  union  of  two  gases,  ox3'gen  and 
nitrogen,  —  a  positive  and  masculine,  and  a  negative  or 
feminine  element.  So  water  is  a  combination  of  oxygen 
and  hydrogen.  Minerals  and  eartlis  follow  the  same  law. 
All  the  salts  of  chemistry  —  and  their  name  is  legion  —  are 
a  union  of  an  acid  and  an  alkali.  Marble  is  carbonic  acid 
and  lime,  and  is  carbonate  of  lime. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  155 

The  maternal  element  in  God  and  nature  is  manifested  in 
the  tender,  protecting,  nursing,  and  healing  care  of  the 
maternal  parent  among  animals  for  her  young.  Jesus  refers 
us  to  the  hen  as  an  illustration.  Take  these  qualities  and 
attributes  exhibited  everywhere  in  nature  in  the  ineffable 
tenderness  of  motherhood,  and  project  the  idea  upon  the 
plane  of  the  infinite,  and  you  have  our  conception  of  the 
universal  divine  life-principle.  We  ma}'  call  it  Eve,  or  Mary, 
or  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  must  not  separate  it  from  God.  We 
may  always  trust  in  it  to  cure  our  maladies  of  body  and 
mind,  and  can  pray  to  this  side  of  the  divine  character.  It 
furnishes  a  secure  standing  ground  for  an  assui'ed  faith,  and 
will  until  "  mothers  cease  their  own  to  cherish."  When  we 
fully  grasp  the  idea,  it  will  ever  say  to  us  in  the  words  of 
Jesus,  "  Be  not  afraid  ;  only  believe."     (Mark  v  :  3G.) 

The  union  of  intellect  and  feeling,  the  masculine  and  fem- 
inine elements,  to  constitute  a  world,  a  thing,  a  perfected 
and  complete  human  entity,  is  the  symbolic  significance  of 
the  cross,  which  expresses  one  of  the  grandest,  most  far- 
reaching  and  all-comprehensive  truths  in  the  whole  realm  of 
mind.  Thus  we  rescue  the  sacred  cross  from  its  degrada- 
tion in  the  modern  theology,  and  restore  it  to  its  ancient  and 
true  meaning,  and  its  saving,  healing  power.  It  is  said  that , 
Constantine,  the  Roman  emperor,  had  a  vision  of  a  cross  in 
the  heavens,  on  which  was  inscribed  the  letters  I.  H.  S. 
vince.  That  meant,  and  still  means,  /n  hoc  signo,  vince,  in 
what  this  sign  signifies,  conquer;  for  the  truth,  sublime  in 
its  simplicity,  symbolized  by  the  cross,  is  of  the  widest 
practical  importance  in  the  system  of  mental  cure.  The 
union  of  intellectual  thought  with  feeling  or  emotion  gener- 
ates power.  The  onanipotence  of  God  is  the  conjunction  of 
infinite  wisdom  and  infinite  love.  The  union  of  the  Divine 
Intellect  and  the  Divine  Love  is  Life,  and  all  conscious  and 
unconscious  life  is  the  result  of  that  conjunction,  a  truth  we 
have  aimed  to  keep  before  the  mine  of  the  reader  of  these 


156  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

lessons.  Hence  the  cross  is  the  Kabalistic  "tree  of  life." 
The  highest  psychological  power  is  attained  when  we  feel  the 
truth  we  know  and  express.  When  the  principle  of  spiritual 
intelligence  in  us  is  conjoined  with  its  correlative  emotion,  it 
becomes  a  supreme  saving  and  healing  power.  Intelligence 
alone,  unvivified  by  love,  is  cold  and  dead,  and  has  no  more 
animating  power  than  moonbeams  reflected  from  polar  ice. 
The  healing  power  of  Jesus  was  the  result  of  the  union  of 
a  divine  intelligence  with  a  pure,  unselfish  love,  and  his  very 
name  signifies  and  represents  the  saving  principle  that  is  the 
product  of  that  union,  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  illustrate 
hereafter. 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUKE.  157 


CHAPTER  XX. 

fHE   KABALISTIC    AND     MESSIANIC     METHOD    OF    HEALING,    AND 
THE    ONE    PRACTISED    BY   JESUS    THE    CHRIST. 

That  the  cures  wrought  by  Jesus  were  effected  by  the 
application  of  certain  fixed  principles,  which,  when  properly 
formulated,  constitute  an  intelligible  transcendental  mode  or 
science  of  cure,  there  can  be  little  doubt.  His  practical 
metaphysics  are  not  an  impenetrable  and  incommunicable 
secret.  The  knowledge  of  its  leading  principles  is  attainable 
by  the  spiritually  enlightened  mind  to-day,  and  that  knowl- 
edge will  invest  us  with  the  power  to  do  the  works  that  he 
did.  It  was  the  practical  application  of  the  Messianic 
method  of  cure,  described  in  symbolic  language  in  the 
Kabala.  In  the  Sohar,  or  Book  of  Light,  of  Rabbi  Simon 
Ben  Jochai,  it  is  said  :  "  In  the  garden  of  Eden  (which  was 
in  the  lower  region  of  the  spiritual  world,  corresponding  to 
the  soul  region  in  man)  there  is  one  palace  which  is  called 
the  palace  of  the  sick.  The  Messiah  goes  into  this  palace  and 
invokes  all  the  sufferings,  and  pains,  and  afflictions  of  Israel 
to  come  upon  Jiim,  and  they  all  come  vpon  Mm.  Now  if  he 
did  not  remove  them  thus,  and  take  them  upon  himself,  no 
man  could  endure  the  sufferings  of  Israel,  due  as  a  punish- 
ment for  transgressing  the  Law :  as  it  is  written,  '  Surely 
he  hath  borne  our  griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows.' "  (Isa. 
lii:4.)  (See  Ginsburg's /la&aZa.)  This  remarkable  passage 
from  the  Kabala  gives  no  foundation  for  the  current  doctrine 
of  vicarious  atonement,  which  was  wholly  foreign  to  the 
Jewish  mind,  but  gives  the  key  to  a  method  of  healing  prac- 
tised by  Jesus,  and  perhaps  also  by  the  mystic  Pythagorean 


158  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

sect  of  the  Jews  called  Essenes,  and  also  in  Egypt  Thcra- 
peutoe  or  Healers,  to  which  sect  Jesus  himself  unquestion- 
ably belonged.  Through  the  sympathetic  or  psychometric  sense, 
which  may  be  defined  as  the  susceptibility  of  being  affected 
by  the  states  of  othei's,  and  which  detects  with  unerring  accu- 
racy the  mental  condition  of  the  patient,  which  is  the  spiritual 
cause  of  his  disease,  we  take  it  on  ourselves,  at  least  so  far 
as  to  have  a  clear  conception  of  it.  This  wonderful  "  soul- 
measuring  "  power  is  represented  by  the  golden  reed  in  the 
hand  of  the  apocalyptic  angel,  by  which  he  took  the  meas- 
ure of  man,  that  is,  detected  the  quality  of  a  person.  By 
it  we  take  up  into  ourselves  the  condition  of  the  patient, 
not  to  permanently  carry  it,  but  temporarily  take  it  up  intel- 
lectually and  in  idea,  in  order  to  loosen  its  hold  upon  him 
and  to  remove  it  from  him.  It  is  as  if  we  should  find  a  man 
by  the  wayside  prostrate  on  the  ground,  with  a  rock  which 
has  fallen  upon  him  holding  him  down.  We  lift  the  rock 
from  him,  not  in  order  to  carry  it  ourselves,  but  only  to 
remove  it  from  him.  So  it  is  said  of  Jesus  that  he  fulfilled 
the  saying  of  the  Book  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  "  Himself  took 
up  (or  assumed  to  himself)  our  infirmities,  and  bore  away  (or 
removed)  our  diseases."  (Mat.  viii :  17.)  We  turn  toward 
the  patient  the  psychometric  or  "soul-measuring"  sense,  or 
the  receptive  side  of  human  nature,  which  may  become 
acutely  developed  in  us,  in  order  to  receive  into  our  minds 
the  idea,  the  mental  image,  the  living  psychic  germ  of  the 
disease.  This  is  the  spiritual  side,  the  immaterial  counter- 
pait  of  the  malady.  This  we  take  up,  as  it  were,  into  our- 
selves, not  sensationally  only  a  slight  degree,  but  rather 
intellectually,  in  order  that  as  a  cause  of  the  disease,  it  may 
be  remitted  or  borne  away  from  the  patient.  Space  is  filled 
with  the  psychic  germs  or  embryos  of  things.  These  are 
identical  with  the  atoms  of  Democritus.  The  general  cur- 
rent of  the  world-life  is  crowded  with  the  soul-gornis  of 
disease,  which  in  their  essence  are  morbid  ideas  and  falla- 


THE   rUlMlTIVE   MIND-CURE.  159 

cious  beliefs.  These  are  the  latent  causes,  a  sort  of  spiritual 
bacteria,  that  may,  under  certain  conditions,  find  lodgement 
in  men's  souls,  and  germinate,  as  it  were,  in  the  prima  mate- 
ria of  the  brain,  and  be  thus  the  fruitful  seed  of  disease,  and 
develop  into  actuality  in  the  physical  body.  These  morbid 
ideas,  which  are  the  true  interior  life  of  disease,  are  to  be 
taken  up,  as  we  have  before  said,  and  borne  awa}'  from  the 
patient.  So  when  the  evil,  the  morbid  idea,  the  sin,  that  lies 
at  the  root  of  the  malady  is  removed,  a  vacuum  is,  as  it 
werC;  formed,  which  God  and  nature  are  said  to  abhor,  and 
the  opposite  good  and  truth,  from  a  fixed  divine  law,  flow  in. 
A  living,  life-giving  truth  cannot  be  received  until  the  error, 
the  illusion,  the  sin  which  occupies  the  mind  is  removed. 
Healing,  saving  truth  does  not  crowd  out  error  or  a  false 
belief  from  the  mind,  nor  neutralize  it  as  an  acid  combines 
with  an  alkali  to  make  a  salt.  But  when  the  error  or  sin  is 
removed,  truth  spontaneously  flows  in ;  when  an  evil  is  put 
away  and  ejected  from  the  mind,  we  come  into  the  opposite 
good.  This  is  according  to  an  established  divine  order. 
When  we  take  up  into  our  intellectual  consciousness  the 
morbid  idea  in  the  mind  of  the  patient,  or  take  upon  our- 
selves intellectually,  but  not  sensationally,  his  spiritual  con- 
dition, we  vicariously  represent  him  in  our  own  person,  and 
bear  that  condition  away  from  him,  and  prepare  the  soil  of 
his  soul  for  the  reception  of  the  seed  of  healing  and  saving 
truth.  Thus  did  Jesus.  He  bore,  or  I'epresented  in  his  own 
person  the  sins  of  men.  (I  Pet.  ii:24.)  He  affirms  that 
his  works  can  be  repeated  by  his  followers.  (John  xiv  :  12.) 
In  the  case  of  the  cure  of  the  paralytic,  mentioned  in  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew,  there  are  many  valuable  hints  which  can 
be  taken  advantage  of  in  the  psychological  method  of  cure. 
One  is  that  the  remission  of  sin,  or  the  banishment  from  the 
mind  of  a  patient  of  the  error  or  false  idea,  of  which  the 
disease  is  the  physical  counterpart  or  material  expression,  is 
equivalent  to  the  cure  of  the  malady.     It  is  also  affirmed  that 


IGO  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

God  lias  given  to  the  "  son  of  man"  — a  purely  Eabalistic 
expression  for  man,  as  to  his  soul-principle  —  power  to  do 
this.  The  spirit  is  the  real  man  and  son  of  God.  The  soul, 
as  being  generated  by  the  spirit,  is  the  son  or  offspring  of 
the  real  man.  This,  when  pervaded  by  the  life  of  the  spirit, 
has  power  on  earth  to  bear  away  from  the  mind  of  another 
a  false  idea  or  sin.  This  is  clearly  taught  in  that  remarkable 
passage  in  the  Gospel  of  John,  which  contains  a  great  truth 
and  principle  of  Christianity  which  has  been  dropped  out  of 
the  life  of  the  church  and  forgotten.  After  the  appearance 
of  Jesus  as  a  spirit  to  his  disciples  or  scholars,  he  said  to 
them,  "As  my  father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you. 
Whose  soever  sins  ye  remit  (that  is,  banish,  bear  or  send 
away) ,  they  are  remitted  unto  them ;  and  whose  soever  sins 
ye  retain,  they  are  retained."  (John  xx :  21,  22.)  The 
term  sin  is  here  used  in  its  radical  sense,  of  an  "  aberration 
from  the  truth,"  or  the  divine  reality  of  things,  an  error,  a 
falsity,  an  illusion,  and  not  in  its  corrupted  theological  sig- 
nification. In  this  sense  sin  is  the  psychic  germ  of  disease, 
the  idea  or  living  image  of  it,  and  that  alone  from  which  it 
can  exist.  The  disciples  of  Jesus  in  all  ages,  through  the 
coming  to  them  of  the  Paraclete  as  the  spirit  and  power  of 
truth  from  him,  and  as  the  inward  Word,  which  was  to  be 
inspired  into  them  by  his  spiritual  presence,  were  to  be 
endowed  with  power  to  remit  or  put  away  sin,  as  being  the 
cause  of  every  physical  malady,  from  the  minds  and  life  of 
men.  How  this  is  to  be  done  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of 
the  mind  has  been  shown  above.  We  take  up  into  ourself 
the  morbid  condition  of  the  patient,  and  assume  the  psychic 
embryo  of  the  disease,  so  that  we  vicariously  represent  him, 
and  "bear  it  in  our  body  up  to  the  tree"  (I  Pet.  ii :  24),  —  a 
profound  Kabalistic  expression.  We  take  up  into  ourself 
his  condition  in  order  that  we  may  form  a  clear  idea  of  it, 
and  this  idea  of  it  is  the  real  disease,  the  ding  an  sich,  or 
thing  in  itself.     Thus  we  are  able  to  remit  it  or  put  it  away 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  161 

from  him.  This  leaves  in  his  mind  a  "  peaceful  vacancy," 
which  the  universal  Divine  Life  and  Light  make  haste  to  lill. 
This  is  the  Messianic  method  of  cure,  and  our  skill  and 
facility  in  doing  this  will  prove  to  the  world  the  curative 
efficiency  of  the  psycho-therapeutic  sj'stem  of  Jesus.  There 
is  a  power  in  this  psychological  and  transcendental  method 
which  few  are  prepared  to  admit. 

It  may  aid  us  in  understanding  the  deep  philosophy  of  this 
method  of  cure,  if  we  bear  in  mind  that  ideas  are  the  only 
immediate  objects  of  consciousness.  In  this  Berkeley  and 
Locke  both  agi'ee.  And  it  is  a  doctrine  older  than  Plato, 
that  ideas  are  the  only  real  things.  All  real  things  belong  to 
the  "  unseen  world,"  or  lie  beyond  the  grasp  of  the  senses. 
"Things  seen,"  says  Paul,  "are  temporal,"  are  transient, 
evanescent,  and  unreal ;  "  but  things  unseen  (by  the  outward 
sense)  are  eternal."  (II  Cor.  iv:  18.)  Kant  somewhere 
says  that  "  the  rose  which  we  see  is  not  the  thing  in  itself, 
the  ding  an  sich,  but  a  phenomenon  or  appearance."  The 
same  is  true  of  all  the  objects  of  nature  and  of  man.  You 
do  not  see  the  realities  of  things  with  the  eye.  I  do  not  see 
my  friend,  but  only  what  hides  him  from  my  sight.  INIan  is 
always  invisible  to  sense.  I  close  my  e3'esf  and  think  of  an 
absent  friend,  and  I  perceive  a  mental  image  of  him,  a  li-s  ing 
idea,  of  him.  This  is  the  real  man,  the  spiritual  entity,  the 
dijig  an  sich,  the  thing  in  itself.  This  is  the  true  doctrine  of 
Platonic  love,  of  which  men  speak  without  knowing  what  it 
means.  Says  Plotinus,  "  As  long  as  some  one  is  conversant 
with  that  figure  only  which  is  manifest  to  the  eyes,  he  does 
not  yet  love  the  object  which  he  sees  ;  but  when  departing 
from  it,  he  generates  in  himself,  in  his  impartible  (indivisi- 
ble) soul,  a  form  which  is  not  an  object  of  sense,  then  love 
springs  forth."  (Plotinus,  translated  by  Thomas  Taylor,  p. 
92.)  That  is  the  love  of  the  real  person  or  thing.  It  is 
only  by  closing  the  eyes,  or  by  freeing  the  soul  from  the 
ti'ammels  of  the  physical  senses,  that  we  see,  in  the  interior 


162  TUE   PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

light,  things  in  themselves.  Perhaps  blind  persons  see  more 
realities  than  we  see,  for  the  reason  that  what  we  call  vision 
is  but  a  veil  drawn  over  our  real  sight.  Jesus,  the  Ckrist, 
refers  to  this,  when  he  says  of  the  sensuous  Jewish  rabble, 
"  that  having  e3'es,  they  saw  not,  and  having  ears  thev  heai'd 
not."  The  understanding  —  the  intellectual  soul-principle  — 
is  the  true  organ  of  vision.  It  is  that  which  lies  back  of  the 
eye,  and  is  represented  by  the  eye.  "Tlie  light  of  the 
body,"  says  Jesus,  "is  the  eye  (intellect),  if  thine  eye  is 
simple,  or  not  compound,  that  is,  if  we  see  with  the  intellect 
alone  without  the  external  organ,  our  whole  body,  or  soul,  is 
full  of  light."  The  whole  soul  becomes  an  organ  of  vision, 
and  all  the  five  senses  are  reduced  to  a  unity,  an  indefinable 
perception  of  ideas,  the  spiritual  and  real  side  of  things. 

What  men  call  disease  has  a  spiritual  side  to  it,  an  ideal 
reality.  The  external  is  the  apparent  and  phenomenal,  the 
shadow  and  not  the  substance.  If  the  spiritual  idea  of  it  is 
the  real  side  of  it,  and  if  we  can  take  this  up  into  ourselves, 
and  bear  it  away  from  the  mind  of  the  patient,  it  is  easy  to 
see  that  he  would  be  redeemed  from  it. 

But  it  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  this  method  of  cure  which 
was  practised  by  Jesus  impUes  in  the  patient  a  desire  to  be 
saved,  and  a  predisposition  to  believe.  Where  these  exist, 
the  cure  is  easy.  Where  they  do  not  exist,  little  can  be 
done,  and  it  is  a  waste  of  time  and  energy  to  undertake  im- 
possibilities. We  often  witness  the  efficiency  of  this  ideal 
method  of  cure  where  it  is  instinctively  employed  without  an 
intelligent  comprehension  of  its  principles.  How  often  does 
the  mother,  when  her  child  has  fallen  down  and  inflicted 
upon  himself  a  slight  bruise,  lift  him  gently  up,  pass  her 
hand  over  the  place,  take  up  the  idea  of  it  into  herself,  and 
by  dispersive  movements  of  the  hand  put  it  away,  as  it  were, 
saying  to  the  child,  "  Now  it  is  all  gone,"  and  telling  him  to 
jump  up  and  run.  That  is  quite  frequently  the  last  ever 
heard  from  it,  for  the  cure  is  complete.     But  in  this  whole 


TUE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  1G3 

transaction  there  lies  concealed  a  deeper  philosophy  than  the 
world  in  general  has  ever  recognized. 

Every  person  is  surrounded  by  an  emanative  sphere  of  his 
life.  This  is  represented  by  the  aureola  or  nimbus  around 
the  heads  of  saints  and  divinities  in  pictures  and  medals. 
Especially  is  this  seen  in  the  pictures  of  Jesus.  This  is  a 
circle  or  disk  of  rays  invisible  to  our  crude  senses,  but  plainly 
perceptible  to  our  inner  vision,  and  is  by  no  means  a  mere 
creation  of  fancy  having  no  substantial  reality,  but  represents 
what  actually  exists  in  every  person  —  an  emanative  sphere 
of  our  thoughts  and  feelings  ;  in  other  words,  of  our  life.  It 
is  different  in  different  persons,  and  in  the  same  person  at 
different  times,  as  it  is  always  in  correspondence  with  our 
inward  states.  In  all  depressing  mental  conditions,  as,  for 
instance,  in  melancholy,  this  nimbus  or  sombre  exhalation  is 
to  be  removed  by  dispersive  passes,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
effectual  ways  of  changing  the  morbid  mental  condition  of  a 
patient,  and  of  expunging  from  his  mind  the  idea  and  misbe- 
lief which  constitute  the  invisible  side  of  his  malady.  This 
is  the  teaching  of  the  ancient  arcane  science  of  magnetism, 
and  the  experience  of  many  thousands  of  years  has  placed  it 
among  established  principles  and  demonstrated  its  efficiency. 
It  is  now  given  to  the  world  for  the  benefit  of  humanity.  By 
removing  the  dark  cloud  (so  to  speak)  or  the  odyllic  emana- 
tion that  surrounds  the  brain, —  and  it  is  as  easily  done  as 
you  can  quench  the  flame  of  a  candle  with  a  sweep  of  the 
hand,  —  you  prepare  the  way  for  the  reception  of  a  higher 
and  better  influx.  Just  as  when  you  brush  away  the  air 
around  your  face  with  a  fan,  fresh  air  immediately  flows  in 
to  take  its  place. 

This  principle  is  given  with  an  actual  experimental  knowl- 
edge of  its  practical  value,  though  to  our  modern  materialistic 
science  of  medicine  it  may  seem  of  no  importance.  It  has 
been  said  by  some  one  "  that  Jesus  cured  disease  by  purify- 
ing the  atmosphere  both  toithin  and  without  the   patient." 


164  THE   PRIMITIVE   MEND-CURE. 

This  he  could  do  by  the  power  of  the  inner  "Word  and  the 
Spirit,  and  by  these  divine  agencies  we  may  learn  in  our 
feebler  way  to  do  the  same.  A  knowledge  of  the  science  of 
magnetism  is  of  great  advantage  to  the  practitioner  of  the 
mental  cure  system.  To  cure  disease  by  the  phrenopathic 
method,  while  wholly  ignoring  magnetism,  must  seem  to 
many  persons  like  professing  to  fly  without  wings,  or  like  an 
attempt  to  practise  telegraphy  and  denouncing  the  battery 
and  the  wire,  but  all  the  time  using  both  while  kept  out  of 
sight.  But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  the  most  efficient 
and  successful  use  of  the  principle  of  magnetism  does  not 
imply  contact  with  a  patient.  The  establishment  of  this  prin- 
ciple is  one  of  the  things  done  for  the  science  by  the  cele- 
brated and  world-renowned  Baron  Du  Potet,  the  prince  of 
modern  magnetists,  and  who  is  worthy  to  be  named  with 
Pythagoras,  with  Apollouius  of  Tyana,  and  with  Paracelsus, 
and  Van  Helmont.  Magnetism  in  the  old  spiritual  science  is 
identical  with  the  universal  Ufe-princijole,  and  is  the  medium 
through  which  our  minds  influence  the  minds  of  others,  and 
a  thought  and  will  impulse  are  transmissible.  To  undertake 
to  affect  the  mind  of  another  without  it  is  as  absurd  as  tc 
attempt  to  communicate  sound  through  an  absolute  vacuum, 
or  for  a  skilful  mechanic  to  go  forth  to  his  work,  but  leave 
his  tools  behind. 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  165 

OP  THIf      •  <\ 

UNIVERSITY  ) 
CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE   SUMMIT    OF    CHRISTIAN    KNOWLEDGE,    OR   THE    MYSTERY    OP 
THE   CHRIST,  AND  ITS   SAVING   INFLUENCE . 

Paul  declares  that  he  counted  all  things  as  loss,  and  even 
as  useless  refuse,  in  comparison  with  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of  Christ.  He  joyfull}-  suffered  the  loss  of  all 
things  that  he  might  win  (or  gain)  Christ,  and  be  found  in 
Him,  not  having  his  own  righteousness,  which  is  of  the  law, 
and  which  is  only  apparent  and  not  real ;  but  that  righteous- 
ness which  is  from,  or  out  of,  God,  through  faith  in  Christ. 
(Phil,  iii :  8,  9.)  This  places  the  knowledge  of  Christ  at  the 
summit  of  human  thought,  and  makes  it  the  siimmum  bonum^ 
or  supreme  good  of  the  human  heart.  This  is  not  an  exag- 
geration, but  a  sober  divine  truth,  —  an  infinite  fact  and 
reality.  To  be  consciously  in  Christ  is  to  be  a  new  creature 
or  creation,  that  is,  it  is  the  birth  of  a  new  and  higher  man. 
in  us.  It  is  to  merge  our  individual  and  partial  self  in  the 
higher  Self,  our  Ego  in  the  absolute  Ego.  Paul  attained  to 
this  conception.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  he  says  : 
"I  am  crucified  with  Christ  (a  Kabalistic  expression), 
nevertheless  I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  the  Christ  liveth  in  me." 
(Col.  ii :  20.)  He  found  himself  included  in  the  Christ,  as 
the  divine  Collective  Man,  and  by  virtue  of  this  conjunc- 
tion, was  complete  in  Him  who  is  the  head  of  all  principality 
and  power ;  for  in  him  is  the  first  personal  manifestation 
of  the  "Unknown,"  and  all  the  fulness  of  God.  (Col.  ii : 
10.)  All  human  spirits  are  included  in  the  being  of  the 
Christ,  who  is  the  Universal  Spirit,  and  have  gone  forth 
from  Him  without  going  out  of  Him  so  as  to  lose  their  con- 


166  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

uection  with  Him.  Thie  intuitive  recognition  of  this  sublime 
truth  in  all  its  far-reaching  significance,  and  in  all  its  prac- 
tical saving  influence,  is  the  highest  act  of  faith.  "We  have 
shown  in  a  preceding  lesson  the  importance  of  separating 
by  an  act  of  judgment,  our  real  self,  the  immortal  Ego,  from 
the  disease  that  afflicts  us.  But  it  is  the  completion  of 
this  act  of  faith,  and  its  crowning  position,  to  find  our  real 
self  included  in  the  Absolute  Self,  or  personage  which  Paul 
denominates  the  Christ,  who  is  the  first  and  only  man,  as  all 
other  men  as  to  their  sph-its  are  but  repetitions  or  modified 
manifestations  of  Him. 

This  leads  us  to  inquu-e,  "  Who  and  what  is  the  Christ  of 
Paul  ?  "  This  is  called  a  mystery^  by  which  is  not  meant  an 
incomprehensible  doctrine,  or  unknowable  truth,  but  one  not 
generallj'  revealed;  in  fact,  only  made  known  to  the  "per- 
fect," or  those  fully  instructed.  Paul  received  this  knowl- 
edge by  direct  revelation  from  the  risen  and  ascended  Jesus 
more  fully  than  any  and  all  the  other  apostles.  It  was  a  special 
dispensation  of  the  "  grace  "  of  God  to  him,  as  one  fitted  by 
his  previous  studies  to  receive  it  and  fully  apprehend  it.  He 
tells  us  how  by  revelation  was  made  known  to  him  the 
mystery,  which,  when  we  read,  we  may  perceive  his  under- 
standing in  the  mystery  of  the  Christ  which  in  other  gener- 
ations had  not  been  made  known  unto  the  sons  of  men,  as  it 
was  then  revealed  unto  his  holy  apostles  and  prophets  in  the 
Spirit.  (Eph.  iii :  2-4.)  It  was  a  doctrine  concealed  from 
the  masses  and  veiled  from  their  understanding  by  a  sym- 
bolic covering,  for  the  idea  of  comnmnicating  spiritual  knowl- 
edge to  the  unthinking  multitude  did  not  belong  to  the 
ancient  civilization.  He  declares  also  that  the  great  mys- 
tery' of  the  Gospel,  and  a  truth  which  had  been  generally 
hidden  from  mankind  during  all  preceding  ages  and  genera- 
tions was  then  made  known  unto  the  saints,  which  is  Chi'ist 
in  us,  the  hope  of  glory.  (Col.  i:  26,  27.)  The  rescuing 
these  truths  from  the  inner  sanctuary  and  the  priestly  caste, 


TUE    rUIMITIVE    MIND-CUUE.  167 

and  making  them  the  common  property  of  mankind,  was  the 
real  offence  of  Jesus,  and  the  one  for  which  he  suffered 
death.  Thus  he  died  for  the  benefit  of  all  men  everywhere. 
But  the  question  still  recurs,  "  Who  is  Christ,  and  what  is  it 
to  be  in  Him,  and  to  have  Him  in  us?"  "We  will  now  rever- 
ently approach  and  lift  at  least  a  corner  of  the  veil  from  this 
great  mystery,  the  deepest,  the  most  satisfying,  and  the 
most  influentially  saving  of  all  knowledge  that  lies  within  the 
reach  of  human  thought.  If  we  get  but  a  glimpse  of  it,  it  will 
be  in  our  consciousness  the  dawn  of  a  new  day,  the  beginning 
of  a  new  creation. 

In  all  the  archaic  wisdom-religions,  the  Hindu,  the  Egyp- 
tian, the  Chaldean,  and  also  the  Judaic  and  early  Christian, 
there  lies  back  of  all  creation  or  manifested  existence,  the 
"  Unknown  God,"  the  supreme  Divine  Essence,  the  Sway- 
ambhuva  of  the  Hindus,  or  the  Aditi,  the  Absolute,  the 
Unbounded,  as  it  is  defined  by  Max  Miiller ;  the  same  who 
is  called  in  the  Chaldean  and  Jewish  Kabala,  the  En  Soph, 
the  No  Thing.  It  is  perhaps  the  Father  of  Jesus,  whom  no 
man  knoweth,  onl}-  so  far  as  he  is  revealed  in  the  Son.  Out 
of  this  "  Invisible  God,"  as  he  is  called  by  Paul,  all  creation 
springs,  but  by  au  order  and  law  that  is  called  emauative 
causality.  Each  successive  emanation  from  the  Unknown 
Abyss,  or  each  out-going  universal  principle,  is  less  and  less 
subjective,  and  more  and  more  external  and  comparatively  un- 
real, and  matter  is  the  remotest  effect  and  ultimate  boundary 
of  the  emanative  energy,  beyond  which  is  the  No  Thing  again. 
The  Christ  of  Paul  is  the  first,  and  includes  all  the  others  in 
himself.  He  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  first  and  the  last, 
and  all  between  the  extremes.  In  that  truly  Kabalistic 
book,  the  Apocalypse  of  John,  the  Chi-ist  is  called  "the 
beginning  of  the  creation  of  God."  (Rev.  iii:  15.)  It  will 
be  borne  in  mind  that  Paul  was  famiUar  with  the  secret  doc- 
trines of  the  Jews,  as  they  are  given  in  the  Kabala  of  Simon 
Ben  Jochai,  and  a  slight  knowledge  of  this  explains  many  of 


168  THE    PRUnXIVE    MIND -CURE. 

those  tilings,  which,  as  Peter  afRrms,  are  hard  to  be  uudor- 
stood  in  his  Epistles.  In  the  scheme  of  the  Ten  Sephiroth, 
or  Emanations,  or  Hypostases,  the  first  is  the  Crown,  the 
Crest  or  Apex  of  all  created  existence,  and  which  is  pure 
tliought  and  the  principle  of  thought.  This  is  the  Primordial 
Point,  the  initial  act  and  principle  of  creation.  This  divides 
itself  into  two  rays :  a  Father  and  a  Mother  ray,  a  masculine 
and  feminine  principle  and  potency,  the  Nous  and  the 
Sophia.  The  union  of  these  is  the  Son  of  God,  the  first 
man,  the  God-Man  and  the  Man-God,  the  Adam  Kadmon  of 
the  Kabala,  called  also  Protogonos,  or  First  Begotten.  It  is 
the  Archetypal  Man  of  Plato,  or  of  man  as  he  exists  in  the 
divine  Idea.  All  things  and  all  worlds  are  contained  in  him, 
and  go  forth  from  him  without  going  out  of  him.  Hence 
the  tendency  of  all  things,  in  then*  return  toward  their 
source,  to  assume  the  human  form.  As  the  Kabala  ex 
presses  it,  the  mineral  becomes  a  plant,  the  plant  an  animal, 
the  animal  a  man,  and  man  becomes  divine.  This  is  the 
Divine  Man,  the  Christ  of  Paul,  at  the  same  time  a  divine 
personage  and  a  universal  humanized  principle  of  life  and 
light.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  which  contains  a 
fuller  expression  of  the  Christology  of  Paul  than  an}'  other 
of  his  Epistles,  he  says  of  the  Christ,  "  Who  is  the  image  of 
the  Invisible  God.,  the  firstborn  of  all  creation,  for  in  him 
were  all  things  created,  in  the  heavens  and  upon  the  earth, 
things  visible  and  invisible,  whether  thrones,  or  dominions, 
or  principalities,  or  powers,  all  things  have  been  created 
through  him  and  unto  (or  in)  him ;  and  he  is  before  all 
things,  and  by  him  all  things  consist"  (or  hold  together). 
(Col.  i:  15-18.)  This  is  the  Kabala  with  the  veil  removed. 
In  the  first  emanation  from  the  "  Unknown,"  the  Maximus 
Homo,  or  greatest  man  of  Swedenborg,  and  the  Christ  of 
Paul,  all  men  and  all  things  are  included,  like  a  body  made 
up  of  innumerable  parts,  each  of  which  is  an  image  of  the 
whole.     We  are  in  him,  only  more  really  so,  in  the  same 


THE   PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  169 

way  that  the  artist  creates  the  picture  or  the  statue  first  in 
himself.  This  is  an  ideal  but  real  entity,  without  wliich  the 
material  expression  of  it  could  not  exist.  This  idea  is  the 
immortal  part  of  it.  The  material  manifestation  of  it  may 
be  marred  or  destroyed,  but  this,  never.  This  ideal  and  real 
man  which  I  am  in  Christ,  the  archetypal  man,  has  the  force 
of  destiny,  not  meaning  fate,  but  an  intelligent  and  benevo- 
lent plan  of  my  life,  which  has  its  use  in  the  grand  economy 
of  being.  It  is  only  when  we  perceive  by  faith  that  we  are 
included  in  the  being  of  the  Divine  Man,  Christ,  that  we  are 
complete,  or  filled  out  to  the  full  expression  of  the  divine 
idea  of  man.  Our  weak  and  imperfect  self  is  merged  in  tlie 
grand  unity  of  the  divine-human  principle,  the  divine  human- 
ity of  the  Lord,  which  is  the  Christ.  Our  life  is  no  longer 
an  isolated  fragment  of  life,  but  is  merged  in  the  whole. 
"When  that  which  is  perfect  (or  universal)  is  come,  then  that 
which  is  in  part  is  done  away.  The  individual,  isolated  Ego 
disappears,  and  our  life  is  hid  with  Chi'ist  in  God.  (Col. 
iii :  3.)  Or,  as  it  is  expressed  by  Jesus  in  relation  to  those 
who  believe  on  him,  "I  in  them  and  thou  in  me,  that  they 
may  be  perfected  into  one."  (John  xvii :  23.)  As  our  true 
being  is  in  the  Chi-ist,  he  gives  his  life  to  us,  and  permits  us 
to  call  his  life  and  his  righteousness  our  own,  and  to  appro- 
priate it  as  such.  Just  as  if  each  member  of  our  body  were 
an  express  image  of  the  body,  and  the  life  of  the  whole  cir- 
culated through  it.  This  finding  of  our  real  self  in  the 
Christ  is  the  perfect  state  of  man,  or  of  man  returned  to  the 
state  whence  he  started  into  existence.  There  is  a  Divine 
Human  Principle  and  Personage  that  is  the  inmost  life  of  all 
that  is  in  the  heavens  and  the  earths.  There  is  an  unbroken 
chain  of  being,  from  the  moss  to  the  angel,  and  each  indi- 
vidual link,  though  it  has  a  form  of  life  peculiar  to  itself,  is 
yet  a  manifestation  of  the  life  of  the  whole.  As  it  has  been 
eloquently  said,  "  the  last,  highest,  brightest  link  of  this 
chain,  and  which  conjoins  it  to  the  Deity,  is  man  ;  the  incar- 


170  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE. 

nation  of  thought  itself,  which  is  the  summation  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  man,  that  includes  in  himself  all  other  links  and  their 
single  secret,  the  personified  universe,  the  subject  of  the 
world."  (J.  H.  Stirling  in  his  triumphant  reply  to  Huxley, 
Half  Hours  with  Modern  Scientists,  series  ii.,  p.  137.) 

The  universal  spirit  is  the  proximate  or  first  emanation 
from  the  "  Unknown,"  and  is  the  Universal  Man,  or  a  divine 
human  principle,  and  my  spirit,  which  is  my  immortal  self, 
is  an  individualized  manifestation  of  the  whole,  a  finite  limi- 
tation of  it,  without  being  sundered  from  it.  PhUo,  the 
Jewish  mystic  and  philosopher,  and  a  contemporary  of 
Jesus,  calls  the  Logos,  who  is  the  manifested  Christ,  the 
true  man,  6  aXrj6ivo<i  dvOpcDiro?.  Viewing  myself  as  a  discon- 
nected fragment  of  the  whole,  and  on  the  plane  of  sense  be- 
coming blind  to  the  invisible  tie  which  binds  me  to  the  whole, 
I  may  be  weak,  and  diseased,  and  sinful.  But  when  by  faith 
I  connect  my  real  self  with  the  supreme  and  perfect  Man, 
as  if  a  di-op  were  returned  to  the  ocean,  without  ceasing  to 
be  a  drop,  then  I  am  whole  or  complete.  I  am  now  included 
in  Christ ;  I  have  found  my  real  self  in  Christ,  and  have 
become  a  new  and  higher  creation,  as  all  who  thus  believe 
in  Christ  are  taken  up  into  Christ  and  incorporated  into 
him,  and  he  is  never  sick  or  sinful.  This  is  the  Christ  of 
Paul,  and  his  conception  of  a  life  of  faith  in  him.  It  is 
not  strange  that  he  denominated  it  a  mystery,  and  that  he 
should  suffer  the  loss  of  all  things  that  he  might  win  (or 
gain)  Christ  and  be  found  in  him.  This  is  the  priceless 
pearl  or  spiritual  truth  of  the  kingdom  of  the  heavens,  in 
order  to  purchase  which  a  man  sells  all  other  things,  and 
finds  it  cheap  at  that.  For  when  my  immortal  Ego,  my 
inner  and  real  self,  is  intuitively  perceived  to  be  in  Clu'ist,  it 
represents  the  grand  unity  of  spirit,  or  man  as  the  image 
and  Son  of  God,  just  as  a  drop  of  the  ocean  possesses  all 
the  qualities  and  properties  of  the  great  deep,  and  is,  as  it 
yfere,  the  ocean  concentrated  into  a  drop.     This  is  accord- 


TnE   nilMITIVE   MIND-CUKE.  171 

iiig  to  that  sublime  axiom  of  the  Hermetic  pliilosophy,  Oiu- 
nia  ex  Uno,  Omnia  in  Uno,  Omnia  ad  Unum,  Omnia  per 
Medium,  et  Omnia  in  Omnibus,  All  things  out  of  Oue,  All 
things  in  One,  All  things  tend  to  One,  All  things  through  an 
Intermediate,  and  All  things  in  All.  It  was  the  docti'ine  of 
Paul,  that  to  be  in  Christ,  or  to  intuitively  view  our  iudivid- 
oal  spu-it  and  real  self  as  included  in  the  Christ,  just  as  the 
atmosphere  of  this  room,  while  it  receives  form  and  limita- 
tion from  the  room,  is  nevertheless  inseparable  from  the 
boundless  air,  raises  man  to  a  plane  of  thought  and  conscious 
life  that  is  inconsistent  with  sin  and  disease.  This  idea  and 
disease  cannot  coexist  in  our  consciousness  on  this  exalted 
elevation.  By  this  faith  man  is  lifted  up  to  a  spiritual  alti- 
tude, far  above  that  sensuous  stratum  of  our  being  where 
sin,  disease,  and  death  are  possible.  This  is  Paul's  resur- 
rection in  Christ  and  with  Christ.  If  this  is  an  eternal 
truth,  and  not  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  dream,  then  why  need 
we  look  any  further  for  a  i-emedy  for  either  soul  or  body  ? 
By  this  Pauline  docti'ine,  we  are  brought  under  the  branches 
of  the  tree  of  hfe,  and  may  pluck  and  eat  and  live  forever, 
for  the  Kabalistic  "  tree  of  life"  is  none  other  than  the  first 
man,  the  Christ  of  Paul. 

The  Christ  is  not  only  a  manifestation  of  the  Divine 
Intellect,  or  highest  intelligence,  but  also  of  the  Divine 
Love,  a  love  that  passes  knowledge,  an  infinite  and  irre- 
pressible inclination  to  impart  his  own  good  and  truth  to  all. 
And  the  Christian  method  of  salvation  is  to  find  in  the  Christ 
all  that  we  need,  and  to  appropriate  it  or  make  it  our  own 
by  faith.  Christ,  as  we  have  said,  is  the  Archetypal  Man, 
or  man  as  he  exists  in  the  Divine  Idea.  And  this  idea  con- 
tains in  its  essence  a  conatus  to  realize  itself  in  every  human 
being.  The  Christ  within  is  in  an  endeavor  to  pass  outward 
mto  an  ultimate  expression,  and  save  even  the  body. 

The  next  degree  of  emanation  below  the  Christ  of  Paul, 
and   which   brings   the    "Unknown"   one    discrete    degree 


172  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CTJRE. 

nearer  to  us,  is  the  Logos  or  Word,  as  it  was  called  by 
Philo  and  the  Alexandrian  Platonists.  It  is  also  so  named 
in  the  prologue  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  and  is  represented  as 
the  active  principle  of  creation,  and  the  true  light  that 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  In  it  is  life, 
and  the  life  is  the  light  of  men.  (John  i :  1-14.)  He  is  the 
Pimander  of  Hermes,  the  Viradj  of  the  Hindus.  In  the 
Kubala  he  is  called  the  Angel  Metatrou,  the  mediatorial 
principle.  He  is  the  Angel  of  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  by  an  angel  is  meant  an  emanative  principle  or 
that  which  is  sent  forth  from  God.  He  is  the  Presence 
Angel  in  whom  was  the  name  of  God.  The  Word  is  the 
source  of  all  knowledge  and  all  goodness  in  the  rational  soul 
of  man.  All  truth  in  us  is  Christ  as  the  Word.  Thus,  as 
Paul  expresses  it,  he  is  made  unto  us  wisdom  from  (or  out 
of)  God,  and  righteousness  (or  faith),  and  sanctification, 
and  redemption.  (I  Cor.  i :  30.)  This  manifestation  of 
God  as  the  "  Word"  is  the  inward  voice,  "  the  still  small 
voice,'''  that  Elijah  heard  within.  It  is  what  men  call  con- 
science, but  it  does  not  merely  teach  what  is  right  and  what 
is  wrong,  but  gives  us  an  intuitive  perception  of  all  truth 
that  lies  above  and  beyond  the  range  of  the  sensuous  mind. 
The  Logos  is  identical  with  the  Daimonioyi,  or  inward  teacher 
of  Sokrates.  It  is  the  inner  light  of  the  Quietists  and  the 
Society  of  Friends.  The  abode  of  the  Logos  is  the  "  intelli- 
gible world  "  of  Plato,  and  the  rational  sovl  in  man  belongs 
to  this  plane  or  sphere  of  being.  This  world,  which  is  per- 
sonified in  the  Logos,  is  the  repository  of  all  spiritual  knowl- 
edge. All  that  was  ever  known  or  can  be  known  is  there  in 
idea,  and  may  by  influx  flow  into  the  rational  soul  of  man, 
as  the  flower  absorbs  and  appropriates  the  dew  or  the  every- 
whei-e  present  moisture  of  the  atmosphere.  The  sages  and 
initiates  of  the  inner  sanctuary  claimed  to  possess  the  secret 
of  absorbing  knowledge  without  intellectual  effort  by  simply 
holding  the  soul  open  passively  to  receive  it,  and  it  could  be 
assimilated  so  as  to  become  a  part  of  themselves. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE.  173 

The  next  manifestation  of  God,  and  tlie  lowest  or  most 
external  divine  triad,  is  the  Adonai  or  the  Lord,  the  Uni- 
t^ersal  Life-Principle,  the  Aiiima  Mundi,  and  nearly  the  same 
as  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Lord  is  the  divinely  intelligent 
principle  that  creates  and  governs  the  material  universe,  and 
is  its  only  life  and  force,  but  who  has  infinite  depths  of 
being  beyond  all  sensible  phenomena.  In  the  Kabalistic  Ten 
Sephiroth,  the  lowest  triad  is  made  up  of  Hod  (splendor) , 
and  Netzah  (firmness),  answering  in  us  to  iinderstanding 
and  will.  These  masculine  and  feminine  principles  are 
united  in  Jesod  (foundation),  the  Mighty  Living  One,  being 
the  corresponding  name  of  God.  The  three  personified  are 
the  Adonai,  the  Lord  of  life.  Swedenborg,  from  the  Her- 
metic philosophy,  everywhere  aflSrms  and  continually  reitei*- 
ates  the  truth  that  there  is  but  one  Life  in  the  heavens  and 
upon  the  earth,  and  that  Life  is  the  Lord.  From  this  every- 
where present  Life  springs  the  instinctive  intelligence  of 
plants,  animals,  and  men.  The  Christ  is  the  principle  of 
illumination  in  the  Spirit  of  man,  the  Logos  of  the  rational 
soul,  and  the  Lord,  as  the  welt-geist,  or  world  spirit,  of  the 
psychical  nature.  The  Christ,  as  the  Adonai  or  Lord,  is 
the  inward  teacher  of  the  mind  on  the  plane  of  sense,  quick- 
ening, exalting,  and  rightly  interpreting  all  our  sense  per- 
ceptions, and  removing  the  veil  from  truths  symbolically 
expressed.  Under  this  view  he  is  presented  to  us  by  Paul 
in  the  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  where  he  says,  that 
when  the  Old  Testament  is  read,  there  is  a  veil  upon  the 
heart  of  the  Jews  which  prevents  their  perceiving  its  esoteric 
or  interior  meaning,  like  the  sun  obscured  by  a  cloud.  "But 
whenever  a  man  shall  turn  to  the  Lord,  the  veil  is  taken 
away.  Now  the  Lord  is  the  Spirit :  and  where  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty  (or  freedom  from  the  bondage  of 
sense).  But  we  all  with  unveiled  face,  beholding  as  in  a 
mirror,  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  are  transformed  into  the  same 
image  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  from  the  Lord  the 
Spirit."     (U  Cor.  iii :  14-18.     New  version.) 


174  THE    PRISnTrVE    MIND-CURE. 

This  docti'ine  of  the  Christ,  and  our  relation  to  Him,  is  a 
Platonic  doctrine.  Says  Dr.  Ackermann,  "The  safest  way 
to  a  living  apprehension  of  the  Platonic  Idea  proceeds  from 
the  true  apprehension  of  imp>ersonality  in  consciousness,  and 
this  in  its  relation  to  the  Godhead.  He  who  grasps  himself 
in  thought,  and  appreliends  and  finds  himself  in  himself  and 
at  the  same  time  in  another,  viz.,  in  God,  to  him  it  will  no 
longer  be  obscure  and  unintelligible  what  Plato  meant  by 
ideas."  (^Christian  Element  in  Plato,  p.  186.)  It  is  a  doc- 
trine much  older  than  Plato,  and  existed  in  the  minds  of 
men  as  a  saving  truth  before  the  foundation  of  the  pyramids 
was  laid. 


THE   riUMITIVE   MIND-CUKE.  175 


CHAPTER  XXn. 

THE   BJELATION   OF   JESUS   TO   THE    CHRIST   AND   TO   MAN. 

After  what  has  been  said  in  the  preceding  section,  it  only 
remains  to  say  a  few  words  respecting  the  relation  of  Jesus 
*o  the  Christ  of  Paul.  As  all  human  minds  are  connected 
thi'ough  a  universal  mind,  through  Jesus  as  an  inlet  the 
Christ  entered  into  humanity,  and  deposited  in  it  the  germ 
of  a  new  and  higher  life.  In  a  preeminent  degree,  he  was 
an  incarnation  of  the  Christ, —  not  that  no  one  else  ever 
was,  for  all  spiritually  enlightened  mind  is  a  manifestation 
of  the  Christ  and  the  Word.  But  owing  to  the  unexampled 
spiritual  evolution  of  the  man  Jesus,  his  individual  life  be- 
came merged  and  blended  into  a  unity  with  the  "  Only-Be- 
gotten of  the  Father,"  the  Universal  Christ.  In  him  also  the 
Word  was  made  flesh  or  manifested  on  the  psychical  plane  of 
mind,  and  we  beheld  his  glory.  And  his  intelligent  mastery 
of  the  natural  forces  indicated  his  union  with  the  Adonai  or 
Lord  who  has  all  power  in  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  In 
Jesus  we  witness  a  complete  humanized  expression  of  the 
Christ,  the  Word  and  the  Spirit.  His  personality^  is  an  inlet 
and  an  outlet  of  those  universal  divine  principles,  and  a 
medium  through  which  they  may  enter  into  each  one  of  us, 
and  through  which  the  human  race  may  have  access  to  them. 
In  him  and  through  him  we  may  have  an  actual  communica- 
tion with  the  Christ,  "  in  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of 
wisdom  and  knowledge,"  as  we  can  have  through  no  other 
man  of  human  history.  If  this  is  true  (and  I  fully  believe  it 
is) ,  why  need  we  go  any  farther  to  find  all  the  instruction 
we  need  in  the  divine  science  of  spiritual  things.     Coming 


176  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

into  sympathetic  relation  ^vith  bim,  I  am  brought  into  con- 
junction with  the  fountain  of  all  true  wisdom,  and  it  may 
flow  into  my  mind  according  to  the  degree  of  my  receptivity. 
For  neither  Jesus  or  the  Christ  have  ever  removed  out  of 
hailing  nearness  to  the  human  spirit.  In  his  second  coming 
or  advent  as  the  Paraclete,  "  the  Spirit  of  truth,"  he  prom- 
ised to  teach  his  disciples  all  things  and  guide  them  into  all 
truth ;  in  fact,  to  make  known  to  us  those  many  things 
concerning  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  he 
had  to  say,  but  men  were  not  then  able  to  receive.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  all  that  was  ever  known  by  man  still  exists  in 
the  world  of  mind,  and  through  Jesus  may  be  communicated 
to  the  spirit  of  man ;  so  that  there  is  nothing  hid,  no  occult 
wisdom,  that  may  not  be  revealed.  For  Jesus  was  and 
is  familiar  with  it  all,  and  it  is  the  nature  and  animus  of 
Christianity  to  make  what  was  confined  to  the  few  in  past 
ages  the  common  property  of  man.  It  is  but  three  steps 
upward  to  communion  with  the  Highest.  Jesus  conducts  us 
to  the  Christ,  and  the  Christ  to  the  Father.  He  has  been 
lifted  up  or  elevated  on  the  mystic  cross,  —  not  merely  the 
wood  of  Calvaiy,  the  place  of  skulls,  but  the  Hermetic  cross 
as  "  the  tree  of  life," —  and  from  his  spiritual  altitude  he  is 
drawing  all  men  unto  him.  (John  xii :  32.)  Jesus  repre- 
sents not  merely  an  Oriental  Christ,  but  the  Universal 
Messiah  or  anointing  One.  What  he  said  to .  one  he  said  to 
all  mind  in  that  condition.  (Mark  siii:37.)  No  word  he 
ever  uttered  can  be  lost  beyond  recall.  (John  xiv :  26.)  It 
still  exists  in  mind.  In  Jesus  as  a  man  raised  up  to  repre- 
sent all  humanity,  the  Christ  touched  with  a  vivifying  contact 
our  psychical  nature,  and  that  need  not  be  suppressed  by 
extreme  ascetic  mortifications,  as  is  done  in  Brahmanism, 
and  the  lower  Buddhism,  but  may  be  lifted  up  enthe,  aa 
Moses  symbolically  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness, 
the  representative  of  the  sensual  principle  in  man.  So  in 
Jesus,  every  "  son  of  man"  —  a  Kabalistic  expression  for  the 


THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUBE.  177 

human  soul  —  ma}'  be  elevated  from  a  mere  sensuous  or  psy- 
chical plane  of  thought  to  a  true  spiritual  life,  with  all  its  tran- 
quil blessedness.  An  invocation  directed  to  Jesus  will  reach 
the  listening  ear  of  an  ever-present  and  never-distant  Christ. 
The  Christ  of  whom  I  have  spoken  might  seem  to  many  to 
be  too  absti'act  a  conception,  too  transcendental,  until  men 
are  raised  to  a  higher  spiritual  level.  But  in  Jesus  we  have 
a  principle  of  mediation.  In  him  the  Christ  becomes  objec- 
tive, and  through  him  my  thought-utterances  and  heart-crav- 
ings may  reach  the  heart  of  the  Christ,  as  certainly  as  the 
sound  vibrations  of  my  voice  may  be  heard  by  my  friend,  far 
removed  from  my  sight,  through  the  telephonic  wire  and  its 
ethereal  vibrations.  After  long  and  patient  study  of  the 
Christ  of  Paul  and  his  relation  to  the  human  spirit,  the  real 
life  of  man,  and  the  relation  of  Jesus  to  the  Christ  and  to 
humanity,  I  can  say  to  the  world,  as  the  inspired  apostles 
said  to  the  Jews  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  "  Let  all  the  house 
of  Israel  know  assuredl}'  that  God  hath  made  this  Jesus 
whom  ye  crucified  both  Lord  and  Christ."  (Acts  ii:  36.) 
And  if  any  one  asks,  AVbat  must  I  do  to  be  saved  (or  healed 
of  sin  and  disease) ,  the  shortest,  most  definite,  and  divinely 
efficacious  prescription  I  could  give  is,  "  Believe  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Chiist,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  Believe 
in  him  for  all  his  name  implies.  For  Jesus  is  presented  to 
us  in  the  Chi-istian  system  as  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost 
(or  to  the  remotest  boundary  of  our  being,  the  body)  all 
that  come  unto  God  by  him,  seeing  he  ever  liveth  to  make 
intercession  for  us  (or  to  execute  the  divinely  established 
function  of  mediation  between  us  and  the  only  saving  power 
in  the  universe,  and  which  is  concealed  in  his  name).  If  he 
cannot  save,  I  know  not  where  to  look,  or  to  whom  to  apply. 
In  the  formula  fidei  or  condensed  expression  of  faith  of 
Buddhism,  which  is  called  Trisharana  or  "the  three  ref- 
uges," it  is  said,  "  I  take  my  refuge  in  Buddha,  Dharma, 
and  Samgha."   By  Dharma  is  meant  the  doctrines,  teachings, 


178  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

and  precepts  of  Gautama.  Samgha  signifies  the  assemblies 
and  ritualistic  observances  of  the  Church.  After  a  careful 
study,  pursued  without  prejudice,  of  the  system  of  Buddhism, 
both  in  its  theoretical  and  practical  aspects,  while  acknowl- 
edging in  it  much  that  is  divinely  true,  and  identical  with 
Christianity,  I  am  still  constrained  to  say,  "  I  take  my  refuge 
in  Jesus  the  Christ."  In  every  age  of  the  world  God  has 
raised  up  extraordinary  men,  and  imparted  to  them  a  high 
degree  of  light  from  the  living  Word.  Such  was  ]Moses, 
Zoroaster,  Confucius,  Plato,  and  above  all  Gautama  the 
Buddha.  There  was  many  a  stray  beam  of  the  living  light  of 
the  Logos  in  all  their  systems,  but  it  does  not  come  in  a  fonn 
to  be  easily  and  practically  appropriated  by  the  souls  of  men 
in  general.  And  if  Jesus  should  say  to  me  as  he  did  to  the 
twelve  select  disciples,  when  many  of  his  shallow  followers 
were  leaving  him,  "Will  you  also  go  away?"  I  should  be 
constrained  to  saj-,  as  all  the  world's  great  teachers  passed 
in  procession  before  the  mind,  "  Lord,  to  whom  shall  I  go? 
Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life."  (John  vi:68.)  In 
Jesus  we  may  come  into  saving  contact  with  the  "Word  of 
Life."  (I  John  i :  2.)  In  no  person  was  there  ever  so  con- 
scious a  union  with  God,  as  even  Renan  affirms.  The  phi- 
losopher Porphyry  was  united  to  God,  as  he  says,  but  twice 
in  his  life,  while  his  teacher  Plotinus  had  been  six  times. 
They  had  come  to  the  perception  of  their  owii  inner  divine 
spirit,  the  Augoeides,  or  shining  One,  of  the  philosopher  in- 
itiates. But  a  conscious  and  inseparable  union  with  God  was 
the  normal  condition  of  Jesus.  And  there  is  no  shorter  or 
better  route  to  the  attainment  of  the  highest  spiritual  light 
and  life  than  a  sympathetic  conjunction  with  Jesus,  the  AVay, 
the  Truth,  and  the  Life.  For  that  eternal  Life  which  was 
with  the  Father  is  manifested  in  him,  and  brought  within  our 
grasp.  In  the  Pauline  development  of  Christianity,  when 
rescued  from  the  dogmas  of  a  theology  that  has  been  grafted 
upon  it,  and  freed  from  the  shell  of  exoteric  Judaism  and 


THE   PRUnXIVE   MIND-CURE.  179 

restored  to  its  primitive  meaning,  we  find  God's  response  to 
our  soul's  inmost  needs.  It  is  the  power  of  God  and  the 
wisdom  of  God  unto  salvation  for  both  soul  and  body,  to 
every  one  that  believeth. 

But,  according  to  Paul,  my  salvation  in  Christ  is  not  to  be 
viewed  as  an  event  to  transpire  in  a  distant  or  near  future, 
but  a  genuine  faith  appi-ehends  and  appropriates  it  as  an 
eternally  existing  fact.  "  The  head  of  every  man  is  Christ, 
and  the  head  of  Christ  is  God."  (I  Cor.  xi :  3.)  That  is, 
the  highest  region  of  our  being,  the  immortal  Ego,  and  real 
self,  is  inseparable  from  the  Christ,  the  God-Man,  and  the 
Man-God,  and  that  spiritual  and  divine  entity  was  never 
lost,  or  diseased,  or  unhappy.  It  is  not  the  head,  the  sum- 
mit of  human  nature,  the  spu-it,  that  needs  to  be  washed  or 
cleansed.  That  is  already  pm-e ;  but  it  is  the  feet,  the 
animal  soul ;  and  if  these  are  washed,  we  are  then  clean  every 
whit.  This  is  one  of  those  profound  sayings  of  Jesus  that 
even  the  apostles  did  not  understand  until  they  were  initi- 
ated more  fully  into  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
(John  xiii :  4-10.)  All  men  were  created  in  Christ,  as  I 
have  before  said,  something  as  an  artist  creates  his  picture 
or  statue,  in  idea.  This  is  the  real  and  immortal  entity.  So 
in  Christ;  or,  as  "  a  man  in  Christ,"  as  Paul  expresses  it, 
I  am  perfect  and  complete.  This  is  the  true  idea  of  my 
existence,  the  divine  plan  of  my  life.  If  I  believe  this  of 
myself  and  of  Christ,  and  steadfastly  maintain  this  idea  and 
belief,  it  will  work  itself  out  into  an  ultimate  expression,  and 
translate  itself  into  even  a  bodily  manifestation.  This  idea 
of  ourselves  has  been  lost  to  our  consciousness,  and  the 
divine  plan  may  have  been  temporarily  marred.  But  Paul 
teaches  that  we  may  be  created  anew  in  Christ  Jesus  unto 
good  works,  which  God  before  ordained  that  we  should  walk 
in  them.  (Eph.  2 :  10.)  Through  Jesus,  the  divine  ideal 
becomes  the  actual.  Every  one  of  us  was  made  for  a  use  in 
the  grand  economy  of  the  universe.     To  find  out  what  we 


180  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

are  created  for,  and  to  do  that  use,  is  our  highest  health  and 
happiness.  Jesus  sought  to  find  in  those  he  healed  the  true 
idea  of  their  being,  and  to  so  create  them  anew  as  to  make  it 
an  actuality.     We  should  do  the  same. 

It  has  been  said  of  Gautama  the  Buddha,  that  his  life  is 
"  the  history  of  a  soul  in  search  of  spiritual  rest,  of  the 
various  experiments  by  which  he  vainly  sought  to  find  it,  of 
the  success  that  at  last  crowned  his  efforts,  and  finally  of  his 
life-loug  endeavor  to  communicate  to  others  the  blessing  he 
seemed  to  himself  to  have  obtained."  The  answer  of  Bud- 
dhism to  the  inquiry, 

"  O  where  shall  rest  he  found, 
Eest  for  the  weary  soul  ?  " 

is  in  the  extinction  or  "  snuffing  out"  of  desire.  Desire,  it 
is  said,  begets  will,  and  will  is  force,  and  force  is  matter, 
and  matter  is  evil.  So  the  descent  from  desire  to  matter 
and  unrest  is  in  as  direct  a  line  downward  as  that  pursued 
by  an  apple  in  falling  from  the  tree  to  the  ground.  There  is 
much  of  truth  in  this.  The  answer  of  Jesus,  speaking  as  the 
Christ,  is  "  Come  unto  (or  up  to)  me,  all  ye  that  labour  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  (Mat.  xi :  28-30.) 
In  the  doctrine  of  the  Christ  and  of  his  relation  to  me  as 
constitutiug  m}'  inner  and  true  self,  we  find  a  secure  refuge 
from  sin  and  disease.  When,  by  a  supreme  act  of  faith,  I 
perceive  that  my  spiritual  self  is  included  in  him,  as  the 
Collective  or  Universal  Man,  I  have  found  myself,  and  fo«nd 
it  in  Chi-ist,  as  Paul  expresses  it.  So  far  as  I  believe  this  it 
becomes  to  me  a  conscious  reality,  and  in  him  I  am  possessed 
of  all  good  that  can  be  an  object  of  desire,  and  have  nothing 
to  ask.  (John  xvi :  23.)  We  have  reached  the  true  Nirvana, 
or  snuffing  out  of  desire,  when  we  can  sa}',  — 

"  Thou,  0  Christ,  art  all  I  want. 
More  than  all  m  thee  I  find." 


TUE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  181 

This  is  not  bo  much  an  extinction  of  desire,  as  it  is  its  com- 
plete satisfaction  and  fulfilment.  As  disease  in  its  essence, 
as  the  word  radically  signifies,  is  a  state  of  unrest  and 
disquietude,  when  I  have  found  my  real  self  in  Christ,  and 
in  him  every  need  is  met,  I  am  in  a  state  of  true  health. 

"  Now  rest,  my  long  divided  heart, 
Fixed  on  this  blissful  centre,  rest. 
Nor  ever  from  thy  Lord  depart, 

With  him  of  every  good  possessed." 

No  one  was  ever  entirely  satisfied  with  himself  until  he 
finds  his  real  self;  and,  as  Plotinus  would  express  it,  the 
man  that  I  am  here  is  united  to  the  man  that  exists  in  True 
Being,  or  the  Christ.  But  why  was  man  from  a  pure  spirit 
reduced  to  the  bondage  of  the  senses,  and  imprisoned  in 
matter?  The  reason  is  given  by  Paul  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.  The  intelligent  creation,  or  man  as  an  intelligent 
spiritual  being,  was  made  subject  to  vanity  (which  is  the 
maia  or  illusion  of  the  senses  and  of  matter  of  the  Bud- 
dhists) ,  not  willingly  on  our  part,  and  consequently  it  is  not 
what  we  are  condemned  for,  but  it  was  done  by  the  reason 
of  Him  who  hath  subjected  us  to  this  in  hope  of  deliverance. 
For  the  "creature,"  says  Paul,  shall  be  delivered  from  the 
bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  sons  of 
God,  which  is  the  designation  of  man  as  a  pure  spiritual 
intelligence.  Then  he  will  connect  in  his  own  personality 
the  two  extreme  links  of  existence,  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega, 
or  spirit  and  matter.  The  evils  and  sufferings  of  our  present 
sensuous  condition  are  only  travailing  pains  that  are  followed 
by  the  birth  of  a  higher  state.  (Rom.  viii  :  18-22.)  All 
this  was  taught  Kabalistically  or  symbolically  in  one  of  the 
early  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Genesis.  The  marriage  of  the 
Benai  Eloheim  or  sons  of  God,  which  represents  our  spiritual 
nature,  with  the  "daughters  of  men,"  the  psyche  of  the 
Greeks,  or  the  mind  on  the  sensuous  and  material  plaue, 


182  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

gives  birth  to  a  higher  race,  mighty  men,  and  men  of  re- 
nown. From  this  union  of  our  higher  with  the  so-called 
lower  nature,  we  have  a  race  of  men  who  can  consciously 
dwell  in  the  world  of  sense  and  at  the  same  time  in  the  realm 
of  spirit,  like  Jesus  "  the  son  of  man  who  is  in  heaven." 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUKE.  183 


CHAPTER  XXTTT. 

TUE   KABALISTIC  JUSTICE  AND  PAUL's  RIGHTEOUSNESS  OF   FAITH, 
AND   THEIR  CURATIVE   POWER. 

In  the  philosophy  of  Plato  and  Ae  Oriental  Theosophy  the 
word  "justice"  had  an  occult  meaning  far  transcending  its 
ordinary  signification.  In  the  popular  mind  it  had,  and  stiU 
has,  the  same  meaning  as  equity^  but  among  the  philosopher 
initiates  it  was  something  more,  and  much  more.  Plato  says  in 
the  "  Cratylus  "  that  he  learned  from  the  sacred  mysteries  that 
justice  is  the  same  as  cause,  it  being  the  vnost  penetrating  of 
all  things.  But  in  stating  this,  he  says,  he  seems  "  to  inquire 
farther  than  is  becoming,  and  to  pass  beyond  the  trench." 
He  therefore  puts  it  into  the  mouths  of  others,  of  whom  he 
asks  the  meaning  of  the  word,  to  give  its  full  signification. 
One  man  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that  justice  is  the  sun, 
because  the  sun's  light  penetrates  and  influences  everything, 
meaning  of  course  the  spiritual  sun,  whose  light  is  pure  truth. 
Another  is  made  to  say  that  justice  is  that  intellect  of  which 
Anaxagoras  speaks  when  he  affirms  that  intellect  —  by  which 
he  means  a  pure  deific  or  spiritual  intelligence  —  orders  and 
is  the  cause  of  all  things.  It  is  a  rectitude  of  thought,  a 
perception  of  things  on  the  square,  to  use  a  Masonic  symbol. 
These  higher  intellectual  perceptions,  uninfluenced  by  the 
illusions  of  the  senses,  and  which  are  the  rays  of  a  divine 
intelligence,  are  "  the  righteousness  of  faith"  of  which  Paul 
speaks.  It  is  the  faith  o/the  Clu-ist,  the  intellectual  percep- 
tion that  belongs  to  the  crest  or  summit  of  our  being.  It  is 
the  faith  of  the  "  Son  of  God,"  the  Kabalistic  designation  of 
our  inmost  spirit.     It  is  at  the  same  time  a  deific  intelligence 


184  THE    PRIMIXrVE    MIND-CTJIIE. 

and  a  deific  power,  because  it  is  a  manifestation  in  us  of  the 
same  intellect  that  creates  and  governs  the  world.  Accord- 
ing to  Plato,  our  gnostic  or  knowing  powers  exist  in  three 
degrees.  The  lowest  is  mere  animal  instinct,  and  reason, 
and  opinion,  which  may  be  true  or  false.  The  next  higher 
degree  is  faith,  which  is  far  more  than  opinion  and  that 
degree  of  knowledge  which  is  called  science,  which  is  a  super- 
ficial perception  of  external  facts.  The  highest  of  all  is 
intuition,  which  is  the  divine  light  that  illuminates  the 
inmost  or  supreme  man 'or  mind.  This  is  an  intelligence 
invested  with  a  large  fraction  of  God's  omnipotence. 

It  is  also  said  by  Plato  in  the  "Timaeus"  —  and  it  is  a  fun- 
damental doctrine  of  the  ancient  Theosophy  —  that  there  are 
two  classes  of  things  of  which  our  minds  are  cognizant; 
first,  things  that  exist  in  true  being,  or  those  that  have  a  real 
existence,  and  are,  as  Kant  would  call  them,  "  things  in 
themselves."  These  are  ideas.  Secondly,  there  are  things 
that  are  in  a  state  of  "  becoming  to  be,"  but  reall}'  are  not. 
These  include  all  our  sense-perceptions  and  the  objects  of 
the  so-called  external  world.  They  are  not  realities,  but 
only  their  appearances  or  resemblances.  These  are  recog- 
nized by  opinion,  —  which  is  only  a  little  elevated  above  the 
animal  life,  —  conjoined  with  irrational  sense.  The  other 
class  of  things,  or  those  that  have  true  being,  are  appi'e- 
hended  by  pure  intellect,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  identi- 
cal with  the  Kabalistic  "  justice  "  and  Paul's  righteousness 
of  faith.  The  word  so  often  used  by  Paul,  hiKioa-vvq,  and 
which  is  in  our  common  version  translated  "  justification,"  is 
the  understanding  of  the  just  man,  as  Plato  asserts,  or  the 
attainment  of  pure  intelligence.  Dr.  Ackermann,  in  his 
"  Christian  Element  in  Plato,"  says  that  the  Platonic  mean- 
ing of  a/xapTLa  (liamartio) ,  sin,  is  an  error  of  the  understand- 
ing, and  we  must  suppose  that  Plato  and  even  Paul  under- 
stood Greek.  By  sin  is  meant  the  illusion  and  erroneous 
judgment  of  the  senses,  which  is  always  the  direct  opposite 


THE   PRIMITIVE   jnND-CDRE.  185 

of  the  truth,  or  that  clear  iutelligence  which  is  called  justice 
and  faith.  Paul  says,  "  Let  not  sin  reign  in  your  mortal 
bodi^'s,"  that  is,  let  not  these  erroneous  and  illusory  judg- 
ments of  the  mind  on  the  plane  of  irrational  sense  control  the 
corporeal  condition.  But  let  grace  (or  occult  ivisdom,  as  the 
word  Kabalistically  means)  reign  unto  righteousness,  tlirough 
Jesus  Chi'ist  our  Lord.     (Rom.  v :  21.) 

In  every  case  of  disease  it  is  incumbent  on  us  to  ask, 
whether  it  belongs  to  things  that  really  are,  or  those  which 
have  an  existence  in  our  true  being?,  or  to  the  class  of  things 
which  includes  all  our  sense  perceptions,  that  onl}'  appear  to 
be,  but  really  are  not.  It  is  our  right  to  appeal  the  case 
from  the  court  of  irrational  sense,  with  all  its  phantasms,  to 
a  higher  intellectual  tribunal,  —  to  the  decision  of  the  Pla- 
tonic and  Kabalistic  justice,  and  Paul's  "righteousness  of 
faith,"  where  the  decision  of  the  mind  on  the  plane  of  sense 
will  be  reversed,  and  the  disease  will  be  classed  among  illu- 
sions, deceptive  appearances,  or  sin  which  has  no  right  to 
reign  in  our  mortal  bod}'.  This  is  only  following  the  precept 
of  Jesus,  "  judge  not  according  to  appearance  (sight,  sense), 
but  judge  righteous  judgment "  ;  or,  according  to  the  true 
nature  of  things,  which  is  alwaj's  the  direct  opposite  of  the 
decision  of  the  sensuous  mind.  Faith  in  the  above  sense,  as 
the  perception  of  truth  which  is  above  and  beyond  the  grasp 
of  the  senses,  would  seem  to  be  the  divinely  appointed 
remedy  for  the  maladies  of  the  soul,  from  which  the  diseases 
of  the  body  arise,  and  of  which  they  are  the  corporeal  ex- 
pression. In  the  " Timceus,"  Plato  says,  "that  the  disease  of 
the  soul  is  folly,  or  a  privation  of  pure  intellect.  But  there 
are  two  kinds  of  folly,  the  one  madness,  the  other  ignorance. 
Whatever  influence  therefore  introduces  cither  of  these  must 
be  called  disease."  (  Works  of  Plato,  by  Thomas  Taylor, 
p.  544.)  If  this  is  true,  it  irresistibly  follows  that  the  most 
eflicient  remedy  for  the  soul's  ailments  must  be  real  truth, 
and  the  perception  of  truth  that  lies  above  and  beyond  the 


186  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

plane  of  sense,  and  that  puts  our  minds  on  the  same  exalted 
level  with  that  divine  intellect  that  creates  and  governs  tlie 
world,  is  the  Kabalistic  justice,  and  Paul's  righteousness  of 
faith  or  rectitude  of  thought.  This  pure  thought  uninflu- 
enced by  sense,  which  separates  the  disease  from  our  true 
being,  and  views  our  real  self  as  exempt  from  all  evil,  is  a 
silent  but  omnipotent  energy  that  is  the  sovereign  panacea 
for  the  maladies  of  the  soul  and  its  body.  He  who  has  the 
most  of  it  comes  nearest  to  the  Chi-ist,  before  whose  name 
every  knee  bows,  or  owns  allegiance. 

The  docti'ine  of  the  triune  nature  of  man  has  always  been 
the  teaching  of  the  spiritually  minded  of  all  ages  and  coun- 
tries of  the  world.  It  is  a  doctrine  of  which  we  must  never 
lose  sight,  and  it  must  be  to  us  something  more  than  an 
opinion;  it  must  become  to  us  an  intuitive  perception,  as  it 
was  to  the  mystics  of  the  middle  ages, — as  Ruysbroek, 
Eckart,  and  Tauler.  Th&j  looked  upon  human  nature  as 
tripartite,  like  the  three  stories  of  a  house,  or  like  the  tem- 
ple of  Solomon,  which  is  more  a  symbolic  than  a  historic 
edifice.  There  is  in  man,  first,  the  outer  court  of  sense ; 
next,  the  inner  sanctuary  of  the  intellectual  soul ;  and 
lastly,  in  the  East,  the  most  holy  place,  the  spirit,  where, 
like  the  high  priest,  we  may  commune  with  God.  This  is 
the  inmost  region  of  our  being,  and  our  real  self.  It  is 
included  in  the  Christ,  or  the  Universal  Spirit.  On  this 
subject,  Ruysbroek  says,  "  I  believe  that  the  Son  is  the 
image  of  the  Father,  that  in  the  Son  have  dwelt  from  all 
eternity,  foreknown  and  contemplated  by  the  Father,  the 
prototypes  (or  ideas)  of  all  mankind.  We  existed  in  the 
Son  before  we  were  born.  He  is  the  creative  ground  of  all 
creatures, — the  eternal  cause  and  princii)le  of  their  life. 
The  highest  essence  of  our  being  rests  therefore  in  God,  — 
exists  in  his  image  in  the  Son."  (Vaughn's  Hours  with  the 
Mystics^  Vol.  I.,  p.  25.)  This  summit  of  our  being,  which 
is  the  real  and  divine  man,  is  never  contaminated  by  evil, 


THE   PRIMiriVE   MIND-CURE.  187 

nor  invaded  by  disease.  The  recognition  of  this  truth,  and 
the  separation  in  thought  of  sin  and  disease  from  our  inmost 
and  only  true  self,  is  the  Platonic  (and  also  the  Pauline) 
idea  of  redemption.  Says  Dr.  Ackermann,  "  It  is  evident 
what  Plato  means  by  redemption,  or  how  he  conceives  this 
event  in  the  life  of  the  soul.  He  thinks  of  it  as  a  coming  to 
one's  self,  an  apprehending  of  one's  self  as  (truly)  existent, 
as  a  severing  of  the  inmost  being  from  the  surrounding  cle- 
ment, as  a  separation  of  one's  self  from  the  changing  mass 
of  the  world  and  life,  as  a  concretization  of  the  original  spirit- 
ual element  in  man  to  a  divinely  illuminated  germ  of  light  and 
life"  {Cliristian  Element  in  Plato,  p.  247.)  This  coming 
to  ourself,  or  the  discovery  of  our  true  being,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  prodigal  son,  is  the  first  step  in  our  return  to  the 
Father,  and  the  finding  of  this  self  not  only  in  one's  self,  but 
also  at  the  same  time  in  another  and  higher  being ;  that  is, 
in  God  in  Christ,  is  the  Christian  and  Pauline  idea  of  Salva- 
tion in  the  full  sense  of  the  word.  We  are  expected  and 
taught  by  the  pulpit  and  the  Church  to  find  oui*  real  self,  and 
to  view  it  as  polluted  by  sin,  from  the  crown  of  the  head  to 
the  soles  of  our  feet.  But  this  is  the  direct  opposite  of  the 
truth.  It  was  one  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Hermetic  philos- 
ophers of  all  ages,  among  whom  we  unhesitatingly  class 
Paul,  that  there  centrally  dwells  in  human  nature  the  voice 
of  the  Divine  Wisdom.  This  is  the  Genius  Optimus,  the 
Daimonion  or  divine  guide  of  Solo-ates,  our  inmost  divine 
spirit  and  true  self,  the  "  Soul  of  the  Soul,"  and  the  all- 
seeing  eye  of  the  mind.  It  is  that  part  or  region  of  man 
that  is  incapable  of  contamination  or  damnation,  and  is 
never  affected  by  evil  and  never  lost,  even  in  the  greatest 
of  sinners.  This  is  even  said  to  have  been  Cromwell's  firm 
reliance  and  belief,  and  his  last  question  to  his  attending 
chaplain  bore  reference  to  the  assurance  of  it.  In  most  men 
it  is  latent,  and  is  as  unknown  to  consciousness  as  the  inte- 
rior of  the  pyramid  of  Cheops,  or  the  central  world  of  the 


188  THE   PRIMITIVE    jnND-CURE. 

universe.  But  it  will  sometime  rise  from  its  chrysalis  enfold- 
ments,  and  come  into  conscious  life  and  activity.  In  this 
life  of  sense,  we  have  taken  our  journej'  into  a  far  country 
away  from  our  Fatlier's  house  or  the  realm  of  pure  spirit. 
"  Our  (true)  country,"  says  Plotinus  (that  is,  truly  existing 
being),  "is  that  from  whence  we  came,  and  where  our 
Father  lives."  Again,  he  says  of  this  world  of  spirit,  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  man,  ' '  Whoever  is  a  spectator  of  this 
divine  world  becomes  at  one  and  the  same  time  both  the 
spectator  and  the  spectacle,  for  our  inmost  self  and  immortal 
Ego  is  inseparable  from  it.  He  no  longer  beholds  this  intel- 
ligible world,  or  world  of  intelligence,  externalh',  but  he 
becomes  the  same  with  it."  {Plotinus,  Translated  by 
Thomas  Taylor,  p.  100.)  This  is  man  as  an  image  or  idea 
of  God,  and  not  the  vulgar  and  debased  thing  to  which  that 
divine  name  is  usually  given.  And  faith,  when  it  rises 
above  mere  opinion,  and  becomes  a  clear  intellectual  percep- 
tion of  eternal  truth,  is  the  divinest  power  and  highest  saving 
and  healing  energ}-  in  the  universe.  "  If  thou  canst  believe, 
all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth."  (Mark  ix  :  23.) 
"  If  ye  had  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard,  ye  might  say  to  this 
sycamore  tree.  Be  thou  plucked  up  by  the  root,  and  be  thou 
planted  in  the  sea,  and  it  would  obey  you."  (Luke  xvii :  6.) 
This  is  a  sober  truth,  and  not  an  Oriental  exaggeration. 
The  attainment  of  true  faith  is  the  recovery  of  the  lost  magic 
word.  It  is  a  perception  of  eternally  existing  realities,  and 
is  the  Logos  (or  Word)  in  man.  It  is  what  Paul  denomi- 
nates, "  the  word  of  faith."  Sin,  in  the  Platonic  sense  of 
error,  illusion,  false  opinion,  is  the  opposite  of  faith,  for 
"  whatsoever  is  not  of  faith  is  sin."  (Rom.  xiv  :  23.)  But 
faith  is  not  merely  intellectual  light ;  it  is  conjoined  with 
love  or  feeling.  Says  Swedcnborg,  "All  who  are  in  the 
truths  of  faith  from  good  are  in  power  from  the  Lord,  and 
this  in  the  degree  that  they  attribute  all  power  to  Him  and 
none  to  themselves."   (Arcaiia  Celestia,  4932.)  This  is  Paul's 


THE    rUIMmVE    MrND-CTJRE.  189 

paradox,  "  When  I  am  weak,  then  am  I  strong."  (II  Cor. 
xii :  10.)  Again,  "Truth  has  no  power  except  from  good, 
but  its  power  from  good  is  incredibly  great."  (Arcana 
Celestia,  6344,  also  6323,  8200.)  "The  power  of  truth 
from  good  is  so  exceeding  great,  that  if  man  were  inspired 
by  divine  truth  from  the  Lord,  he  would  have  the  streugt)' 
of  Samson."     {Arcana  Celestia,  10,182.) 

In  the  Kabalistic  scheme  of  emanation,  called  the  Ten 
Sephiroth,  or  universal  outflowing  divine  principles,  which 
correspond  to  something  in  man,  the  fourth  is  love,  and  has 
as  a  con-esponding  name  of  God,  El,  meaning  the  Strong 
God,  the  Mighty  One.  The  fifth,  which  is  justice  or  faith, 
has,  as  a  corresponding  name  of  God,  Eloah,  the  Almighty. 
The  two  together  make  the  Elohim,  the  creative  potencies 
mentioned  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  as  forming  the 
world.  The  fifth  Sephira  or  emanation  is  also  called  strength, 
and  the  fourth  greatness,  because  love  enlarges  the  sphere 
of  our  life  and  our  sympathies,  while  a  man  is  little  in  pro- 
portion as  he  is  selfish.  Faith  was  also  called  by  the  Kaba- 
lists  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  love  the  left  hand.  This 
gives  us  a  sublime  view  of  the  power  of  faith,  as  it  is  a  man- 
ifestation of  the  divine  nature  in  man,  and  explains  the 
words  of  Jesus,  "  Have  the  faith  of  God."  (Mark  xi :  22.) 
The  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  asserts  that  God 
created  the  worlds  {JEons)  by  faith.  (Heb.  xi:3.)  As 
the  Logos,  it  is  the  creative  potency  in  man. 

As  to  the  faith  of  which  Jesus  speaks,  let  it  be  observed, 
that  a  seed  signifies  a  spiritual  truth,  a  living  idea.  The 
seed  of  the  woman,  that  is,  the  traths  of  wisdom,  the  Divine 
Sophia,  shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head,  —  the  serpent  signi- 
fying the  principle  of  sense,  the  Nepliesh,  with  its  illusions 
and  fallacies.  "  For,  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the 
wilderness,  even  so  must  the  son  of  man  (or  the  soul)  be 
lifted  up,"  and  it  must  be  done  on  the  cross,  which  repre- 
sents the  union  of  the  intellect  with  the  love  or  feeling. 


190  THE   PRIMITIVE   JnNU-CUKE. 

The  proper  ground  of  faith  is  the  divine  promise.  But 
what  is  meant  by  this  ?  There  is  often  a  deep  spiritual  plii- 
losophy  concealed  beneath  the  external  envelope  of  a  name 
or  word,  as  has  been  taught  in  the  ' '  Cratylus "  of  Plato, 
which  is  a  dialogue  on  the  rectitude  of  names.  The  name 
of  a  thing  expresses  its  inward  essence  and  true  nature  and 
quality.  The  word  "  promise"  is  from  the  'LvdXn x>romissum, 
and  means  a  thing  sent  beforehand,  and  in  this  sense  an- 
swers to  the  Greek  word.  It  is,  as  it  were,  the  preexistent 
idea  of  a  certain  good  announced  beforehand,  and  which 
waits  to  be  recognized  and  appropriated  by  faith,  and 
then  it  becomes  an  actuality  or  a  thing  possessed.  The 
divine  promises  are  based  on  the  inseparable  and  immutable 
connection  of  certain  things  with  each  other,  as  substance 
and  form,  cause  and  effect.  There  are  some  things  that 
God  has  so  joined  together  that  they  can  never  be  put 
asunder.  If  we  have  one,  we  must  have  the  other.  There 
are  certain  mental  conditions  of  such  a  nature,  and  so  iudis- 
solubly  associated,  that  if  I  have  the  one,  I  must  and  surely 
will  have  the  other.  This  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fixed 
laws  of  geometry.  If  we  make  a  triangle,  the  value  of  all 
the  angles  is  just  two  right  angles,  neither  more  nor  less. 
If  we  make  a  triangle  with  lines  composing  it  of  any  length, 
and  we  are  asked.  What  is  the  sum  of  its  angles?  we  can 
always  say,  with  absolute  certainty,  two  right  angles.  This 
we  knew  beforehand,  for  it  is  based  upon  the  immutable 
truth  and  reality  of  things.  Now  the  promises  of  God  are 
the  announcement  of  certain  eternal  truths,  and  their  divinity 
consists  in  their  truth,  and  not  in  the  book  whore  they  are 
found.  They  are  divinely  and  unalterably  true  wherever 
they  are  found,  whether  in  the  Vedas,  the  Bible,  the  Koran, 
or  the  Almanack,  or  by  whomsoever  announced.  This  is 
forcibly  asserted  by  Paul  when  he  says  that  the  promises  of 
God  are  Yea  and  Amen  (from  the  Hebrew  Amuna,  ti'uth) , 
in  Christ  Jesus,    unto   the  glory  of  God  by  us  (II  Cor. 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND -CUKE. 

i :  20)  ;  that  is,  they  are  the  announcement  of  certain  eternal 
ti-uths,  like  the  affirmation  that  if  you  make  a  triangle,  you 
have,  and  must  have  from  the  essential  nature  of  things, 
two  right  angles,  and  this  result  is  given  beforehand,  so  that 
you  need  not  stop  to  count  or  measure  the  angles.  The 
intuitive  perception  of  these  eternal  truths  is  faith.  If  we 
are  governed  by  the  body  and  the  senses,  or  walk  after  the 
flesh,  as  Paul  would  say,  we  shall  be  sick  and  die.  Our 
existence  will  be  a  dying  life  and  living  death.  But,  if  we 
are  governed  by  the  spirit,  and  believe  the  spirit  and  dis- 
believe the  body  and  the  senses,  we  shall  live,  and  greatly 
live.     This,  in  a  word,  is  faith. 

Jesus  affirms  that  if  we  asJc,  we  receive,  not  that  we  shall 
sometime  receive.  This  is  eternally  true,  and  faith  is  the 
recognition  of  its  truth.  For  asking,  where  it  is  the  expres- 
sion of  desire,  is  receiving ;  for  the  desire  is  the  incipiency 
of  that  which  is  its  object,  and  in  proportion  as  we  believe, 
we  have.  The  two  things  go  together,  so  that  every  one 
who  asks,  receives,  and  the  statement  of  this  eternal  law  of 
the  necessary  conjunction  of  the  two  things  is  what  is  meant 
by  the  word  promise  or  the  sending  beforehand  of  a  thing. 
The  promise  is  the  expression  of  the  idea  of  the  good  we 
seek.  To  add  to  this  the  element  of  feeling,  makes  it  a  living 
and  conscious  reality.  Hence  Jesus  saj'S,  —  and  in  his 
words  there  is  the  promise  of  God,  or  the  announcement  cf 
an  immutable  truth  in  the  heavens  above  and  the  earth 
beneath,  —  "Whatsoever  things  ye  desire,  when  3-6  pray, 
believe  that  ye  receive,  and  ye  shall  have."  (Mark  xi :  24.) 
For  we  have,  and  mentally  appropriate  and  possess  a  thing, 
in  proportion  as  we  believe.  We  cannot  have,  unless  we 
believe  we  have.  These  go  together  like  substance  and 
form,  cause  and  effect,  thought  and  existence.  We  cannot 
have  the  one  without  the  other,  and  if  we  have  the  one,  we 
must  of  necessity  have  the  other. 

Again,  Jesus  says,  "  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  the  Father 


192  THE   rRIJUTIVE   MIND-CUKE. 

in  my  name,  he  will  give  j'ou."  (John  xvi :  23.)  God  gave 
to  Jesus  the  name  that  is  above  every  name,  that  at  the 
mention  of  this  mysterious  name  every  knee  should  bow,  of 
things  in  the  heavens,  and  the  earth,  'ind  under  the  earth. 
It  is  the  name,  as  the  Chaldean  Oracles  say,  which  rushes 
through  the  infinite  worlds.  Now  this  name  is  that  which 
expresses  the  Christ,  the  crown  and  summit  of  manifested 
being.  Tliat  name  is  in  us,  and  represents  our  inmost 
spirit,  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Chi'ist  within.  To  ask  in 
the  name  of  Christ,  is  to  ask  from  this  summit  of  our  being. 
This  is  in  the  quality  of  the  Christ,  and  asking  here  is  praying 
for  that  which  we  know  to  be  his  desire  and  necessary  imjndse 
to  impart,  and  what  he  would  ask,  and  does  in  that  sense 
ask,  the  Father  to  give.  Our  inmost  spirit  is  the  Son  of 
God  in  us,  and  the  Father  always  hears  the  Son.  The  desire 
of  the  Christ  to  bless  and  impart  good,  real  and  not  apparent 
good  merely,  may  be  represented  by  a  musical  note  or  sound. 
Our  asking  from  the  Christ  realm  of  our  being,  is  a  note  in 
harmony  with  it,  and  the  two  blend  together  in  one  sound, 
and  as  such  it  reaches  the  all-hearing  ear  of  the  listening 
God,  the  supreme  and  eternal  Goodness. 


THE   PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  193 


APPENDIX. 

THE  PRATER  OF  FAITH  THAT  SAVES  THE    SICK,  OR  THE  HEALING 
POWER    OF    SPIRITUAL    TRUTH. 

It  is  a  principle  taught  in  the  spiritual  philosophy  of  all 
ages  and  countries  that  prayer  is  the  most  intense  form  of 
the  action,  or  influence,  of  one  mind  upon  another.  All 
genuine  prayer  is  a  union  of  intellect  and  feeling,  and  this 
makes  it  a  living  spiritual  force.  It  is  thought  vivified  by 
love,  and  directed  toward  its  object.  As  the  will  is  the  pri- 
mal force  in  man,  and  is  but  the  intensify ing  and  focaUzation 
of  desire,  the  highest  effort  of  will  naturally  takes  the  form 
of  silent  invocation.  It  spontaneously  seeks  to  gain  a  higher 
level,  a  mightier  strength  to  lean  upon,  and  union  with  a  Life 
that  can  lift  us  from  our  own  and  rescue  us  fi*om  the  weak- 
ness of  an  isolated  individualit}'.  It  is  confirmed  and  per- 
fected by  faith^  which,  as  both  Plato  and  Jesus  teach,  is  an 
operative  spiritual  cause;  and  the  will,  combined  with  faith, 
goes  forth  more  in  the  form  of  aflSrmation  than  that  of  sup- 
plication. As  Jesus — who  is  himself  the  way,  and  the  truth, 
and  the  Ufe  —  affirms  that  whatsoever  we  ask  the  Father  in  his 
name,  or  in  the  quality  of  the  Christ,  the  supreme  Wisdom, 
the  Father  will  give  us  ;  and  as  our  own  spirit  is  the  Christ 
in  us,  and  is  one  with  Ilim,  we  use  the  following  formula  as 
expressing  the  highest  activity  of  the  will,  faith,  and  imagina- 
tion, in  an  act  of  benediction,  or  the  communication  of  good 
and  truth  to  others,  and  as  a  vehicle  through  which  God's 
"saving  health"  —  which  is  the  interior  meaning  of  the  name 
Jesus  —  may  be  imparted  to  the  souls  of  men.  The  apostles 
declare  that  it  was  by  the  saving  virtue  of  the  name  of  Jesus 


194  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CUEE. 

that  the  cripple  at  the  Beautiful  gate  of  the  temple  was  healed, 
and  that  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given  among 
men  whereby  we  must  be  saved.  (Acts  iv :  12.)  According 
to  a  law  of  correspondence,  a  name  signifies  and  expresses 
an  inward  essence,  principle,  and  quality.  When  the  name 
of  a  person,  as  Washington,  Napoleon,  or  Lincoln,  is  men- 
tioned, there  comes  into  thought  the  particular  quality  and 
character  of  the  man.  Hence  the  name  represents  that 
inward  quality.  The  same  is  true  of  things.  Their  names 
signify  to  us  their  inward  essence.  The  Hebrew  name  for 
Jesus  (Yehoshua) ,  as  Reuchhn  demonstrated  in  his  work  on 
the  Kabala,  by  leaving  out  one  letter  (the  Shin),  becomes 
the  mysterious  Yava,  the  sacred  and  ineffable  name  of  God 
among  the  Jews.  The  Yava  (or  Yaho)  is  the  second  Sephira, 
—  the  Sophia,  or  Supreme  Wisdom-Principle,  —  and  is  the 
perfect  conjunction  of  the  intellect  and  the  love  on  the  high- 
est spiritual  plane.  This  is  exactly  the  characteristic  of  Jesus 
and  the  quality  of  his  life,  and  consequently  is  that  which  his 
name  signifies.  In  the  following  prayer  of  faith,  there  is, 
we  sincereh'  believe,  the  saving,  healing  virtue,  of  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  the  Nazaraion,  and  of  the  principle  his  name 
represents. 

Invocation. 

In  that  mysterious  and  sovereign  name  that  is  above  every 
name,  and  which  signifies  and  represents  the  only  saving 
principle  in  the  universe,  and  before  which  every  knee  bows, 
in  heaven,  and  on  earth,  and  under  the  earth,  and  from  the 
summit  of  our  triune  nature,  and  the  spiritual  crest  of  our 
own  being,  we  approach  in  thought  the  Universal  Presence 
of  the  Father,  the  one  and  only  Life,  and  Supreme  Reality. 
In  thy  light  we  recognize  the  truth  that  our  sjnrit  is  a  mani- 
festation and  personal  limitation  of  the  grand  unity  of  Spirit, 
and  in  its  essence  is  divine,  and  included  in  the  being  of 


THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE.  195 

Him  who  is  the  Crown  of  all  manifested  existence,  and  the 
head  of  all  principality  and  power,  and  the  supreme  source 
and  inmost  spring  of  all  saving  and  healing  influence.  In 
our  inmost  and  true  existence  and  real  self,  we  are  not, 
and  cannot  be,  diseased,  for  we  are  one  with  Thee.  Thou 
wilt  cause  the  light  and  power  of  this  great  truth  to  pene- 
trate the  darkness  of  our  souls,  and  disperse  the  errors,  and 
illusions,  and  false  opinions,  and  deceptive  appearances  of 
our  irrational  and  sensuous  mind,  the  only  seat  of  evil,  and 
Thou  wilt  enable  us  to  see  and  feel  that,  as  immortal  and 
divine  spirits,  we  are  well  and  happy,  and  in  this  region  of 
our  being,  we  share  the  deep  ti-anquillity  of  the  Christ  and 
thine  own  eternal  calm.  Thou  art  speaking  anew  to  us,  and 
in  us  the  creative  "Word,  the  still  small  voice,  "  Let  there  bo 
light,"  and  the  darkness  and  blindness  of  the  soul  and  of 
sense  are  becoming  pierced  with  the  radiance  of  a  celestial 
da}',  and  Thou  art  reducing  the  chaos  of  our  lower  soul  to 
the  divine  order  of  the  Spirit.  We  are  not  projecting  our 
voiceless  language  of  adoring  and  supplicating  thought  into 
vacancy,  but  into  thy  Presence,  from  which  we  cannot 
escape ;  and  the  ineffable  light  of  thy  Life  is  opening  and 
demolishing  the  thick  wall  of  solid  darkness  which  has 
hitherto  enclosed  us.  From  this  higlier  position  and  diviner 
altitude  of  thought,  to  which  Thine  abounding  grace  has 
raised  us,  we  perceive  that  our  true  being  has  not  been 
invaded  by  disease  or  any  discomfort,  but  as  included  in  the 
Christ,  the  Universal  Spirit,  is  secure  from  all  evil,  and  free 
from  all  sin.  By  the  light  of  thy  Word  in  us,  which  is  the 
fountain  of  all  spiritual  intelligence,  we  perceive  that  our 
salvation  in  spirit  and  in  the  Christ  is  not  to  be  viewed  as  an 
event  which  is  to  transpire  in  a  distant  or  near  future,  but  is 
to  be  apprehended  and  appropriated  by  faith  as  a  fact  exist- 
ing in  the  present,  and  an  eternal  reality.  With  the  humble 
boldness  which  this  divine  truth  gives  us,  we  view  ourselves 
therefore  as  now  well,  and  ahready  saved  in  the  Christ,  who 


196  THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND-CDKE 

is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  and  we  with  Him  and  in  Him 
are  sheltered  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High,  and  here, 
overbrooded  by  the  Infinite  Life  and  Love,  siclcness  and 
sorrow,  pain  and  death,  and  the  disquieting  fear  of  them, 
can  never  reach  us.  Thou  wilt  cause  us  to  feel  more  and 
more  the  divine  redeeming  power,  and  healing  efficacy  of 
this  eternal  truth,  and  the  saving  virtue  of  the  name  of 
Jesus ;  and  Thou  art  translating  this  true  idea  of  man  and 
our  high  calUng  of  God  in  Christ  into  a  bodily  expression  in 
us,  that  we  may  be  saved  to  the  uttermost,  and  from  the 
centre  to  the  material  circumference  of  our  existence. 
Awaken  in  us  all  the  slumbering  life  of  the  Spirit;  rend 
from  our  inner  eye  more  fully  the  veil  of  illusion ;  remove 
from  our  mental  vision  the  bandage  of  sense ;  and  free  us 
from  the  dominion  of  the  dull  mass  of  the  body,  and  the  lim- 
itations and  thraldom  of  our  material  being.  Break  every 
link  in  the  fetters  of  our  soul ;  remove  the  bars  from  the 
doors  of  our  prison  ;  open  wide  the  windows  of  our  soul  to 
the  radiance  of  the  spiritual  sun,  and  the  ti'ue  light  of  life 
will  penetrate  and  illuminate  the  gloom  of  our  disordered 
condition.  This  sublime  truth,  that  as  a  spirit  created  into 
thine  image,  and  indissolubly  included  in  thine  own  being, 
we  are  exempt  from  disease  and  all  evil,  is  a  ray  in  us  of 
thine  own  intelligence,  and  is  inseparable  from  thine  Infinite 
Mind  and,  as  such,  partakes  of  thine  own  tranquil  and 
saving  omnipotence.  To  this  fixed  stake  we  would  forever 
cling,  though  assailed  by  doubt  and  fear,  and  tossed  by 
storm  and  flood.  In  the  name  of  the  Christ,  in  whom  and 
through  whom  our  life  is  hid  in  Thee,  the  Universal  Father, 
and  only  true  Being,  we  affirm  by  faith  in  opposition  to  blind 
sense,  that  we  are  now  freed  from  our  infirmity.  By  the 
light  and  sovereign  authority  of  the  inner  Word,  we  disown 
and  renounce  disease  and  sin  as  any  part  of  our  immortal 
and  real  self,  and  before  the  tribunal  of  the  righteousness  of 
faith,  or  divine  rectitude  of  thought,  we  execute  judgment 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  197 

upon  them,  and  separate  them  from  us  in  our  conception  as 
something  external  and  foreign  to  our  true  being.  It  is 
done.  As  to  all  that  which  constitutes  our  permanent  and 
unalterable  personality,  we  are  not  diseased,  but  are  now 
saved  in  Thee.  And  we  commit  the  keeping  of  our  souls 
unto  Thee,  the  God  of  peace,  who  canst  save  us  icliolly,  and 
preserve  our  spirit  and  soul  and  body  as  a  harmonious 
unity,  unto  the  full  revelation  of  the  light  and  life  of  immor- 
tality. "Faithful  is  He  who  calleth  us,  who  also  will  do  it." 
"We  trust  henceforth  thy  boundless  Wisdom,  Love,  and 
Power,  to  give  thine  own  idea  of  man  a  full  expression  in 
us.     In  the  name  of  the  Christ.     Amen. 


When  we  can  grasp  the  meaning,  and  measure  and  weigh 
the  full  import  of  this  formula  of  faith,  and  it  becomes  in  us 
a  fixed  mode  of  thought,  and  we  can  repeat  it,  not  as  a  suc- 
cession of  empty  words,  but  in  the  interior  light  of  their  deep 
significance,  we  are  put  in  possession  of  the  power  of  the 
inner  Word,  and  the  Spirit  through  which  Jesus  healed  dis- 
ease, and  cast  out  demons.  Spiritual  thought  can  penetrate 
where  spoken  words  can  never  reach,  for  thought  is  a  more 
?eal  force  than  sound.  It  is  an  arrow  that  never  falls  short 
of  the  mark,  or  misses  its  aim.  It  is  the  same  "  Spirit  of 
truth  "  which  brooded  over  the  original  chaos  or  unparticled 
and  unorganized  cosmic  matter,  and  changed  it  into  the 
cosmos,  a  word  which  primarily  signifies  order  and  arrange- 
ment. It  is  the  same  as  the  power  of  the  Highest  (or  Divine 
Inmost)  that  overshadowed  Marj-.  In  our  patients,  and  in 
every  human  being,  there  is  the  latent  germ,  the  spiritual 
ovum.,  the  dormant  but  still  living  idea  of  man  in  perfect 
health  and  blessedness.  Spiritual  thought,  the  light  of  true 
intelligence,  united  with  feeling,  is  the  Divine  Sophia,  the 
creative  Wisdom-Principle  and  potency,  which  can  "brood 
over  "  (or  incubate,  as  the  original  word  means)  this  latent 


198  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

idea  in  man,  vivify  it  into  consciousness,  and  impregnate  it 
with  a  divine  vitality.  The  repetition  in  thought,  or  in  a 
tacit  verbal  utterance  of  something  like  the  above  form  of 
invocation,  is  one  of  the  most  effectual  modes  of  doing  this. 
Its  influence  will  come  upon  the  patient  like  the  dew  of  heaven 
(the  old  symbol  of  spiritual  truth)  upon  a  withering  flower. 
The  greatest  forces  in  the  universe  are  silent.  The  light  of 
the  sun  falls  in  stillness  upon  the  earth,  and  lifts  countless 
millions  of  plant-germs  up  toward  the  heavens,  and  slowly 
but  surely  elevates  the  trees  of  the  forest  into  the  embrace 
of  the  sky.  The  cure  of  mental  and  bodily  maladies  by  the 
influence  (that  is,  as  the  word  means,  the  inflowing)  of  one 
mind  upon  or  into  another,  is  no  new  thing  in  the  world.  It 
is  not  a  new  invention  or  discovei'y,  but  a  rediscovery.  It  is 
a  resurrection  into  life  of  the  dry  bones  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity. It  is  based  on  laws  of  mind  as  fixed,  and  more  cer- 
tain, than  any  of  the  principles  of  chemistry  —  the  naturally 
and  essentially  diffusive  tendency  of  our  mental  states,  and 
the  absorptive  and  receptive  nature  of  the  soul  of  a  patient 
in  a  passive  state,  and  actuated  by  a  sincere  desire  of  recov- 
ery. Under  the  influence  of  fear  and  unbelief,  or  rather  mis- 
belief, disease  is  both  contagious  and  infectious.  Under  other 
and  better  conditions,  health  of  mind  and  body  is  equally  so, 
for  the  Supreme  Goodness  has  not  given  evil  the  advantage 
over  us  in  this  respect. 


THE    PBrniTIVE   MIND-CURE.  199 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL   TELEGRAPHY,    OR   THE    TRAN5JFERENCE    OP 
THOUGHT   AND    IDEA   FROM    ONE    MIND    TO   ANOTHER. 

It  is  affirmed  by  Swedenborg  that  the  speaking  in  thought, 
the  cogitatio  loquens,  is  understood  by  the  angels  and  spirits 
who  are  with  man  ;  and  if  that  is  true,  then  it  is  by  no  means 
incredible  or  unreasonable,  that,  in  treating  a  patient  near  or 
far  off  in  space,  our  spiritual  thought,  directed  toward  him, 
should  affect  his  spirit.  When  a  subject  is  in  the  magnetic 
state,  if  we  ask  him  a  question  in  thought,  he  perceives  it  and 
answers  it  just  the  same  as  if  it  was  spoken  to  him  in  words. 
It  is  also  a  marvellous  fact,  but  nevertheless  true,  that  if  you 
address  him  in  a  language  that  he  has  never  learned,  he  still 
understands  you  as  easily  as  he  would  if  spoken  to  in  his 
native  tongue ;  for  he  understands  the  thought  and  idea, 
which  are  the  living  soul  of  all  language.  But  magnetism 
adds  no  new  power  to  human  nature.  A  person  in  a  passive, 
and  consequently  impressible,  state,  may  be  influenced  by  our 
thoughts.  When  we  use  the  formula  of  invocation  given  in 
a  preceding  lesson,  the  spiritual  sphere  of  our  minds  may 
dispel  the  sphere  of  the  patient's  mind,  and  our  thought  may 
affect  him  somewhat  as  it  would  if  he  thought  the  same.  It 
is  affirmed  by  Swedenborg  that  such  methods  wei'e  used  by 
the  ancient  Magi  and  the  Jewish  prophets,  in  order  to  ex- 
cite in  the  minds  of  others  a  better  state  of  thought  and 
feeling. 

The  communication  of  thought  and  ideas  from  one  mind  to 
another  without  the  use  of  spoken  words,  and  that  at  gi-eat 
distances,  has  been  practised  in  all  ages  of  the  world  by  the 


200  THK    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE. 

spiritually  unfolded  man.  In  Lord  Lytton's  "  Zanoni  "  it  ia 
said,  that,  when  Zanoni  visits  the  abode  of  the  recluse  who 
had  been  his  teacher,  ' '  years  long  and  many  had  flown 
away  since  they  met  last,  at  least  bodily  and  face  to  face. 
But  if  they  are  sages,  thought  can  meet  thought,  and  spirit 
meet  spirit,  though  oceans  divide  the  forms.  Death  itself 
divides  not  the  wise."     {Zanoni,  Chap.  V.) 

Such  communication  is  perfectly  natural  and  easy  to  the 
spiritual  man.  It  has  been  from  the  remotest  ages,  and  still 
is  practised  by  the  Hindu  adepts  in  occult  science.  Says  an 
intelligent  investigator  of  the  phenomena  exhibited  bj'  them  : 
"  Though  it  may  seem  to  us  a  very  amazing  and  impossible 
thing  to  sit  still  at  home  and  impress  our  thoughts  upon  the 
mind  of  a  distant  friend  by  an  effort  of  will,  a  Brother  (an 
adept) ,  living  in  an  unknown  Himalayan  retreat,  is  not  only 
able  to  converse  as  freely  as  he  likes  with  any  of  his  friends 
who  are  initiates  like  himself,  in  whatever  part  of  the  world 
they  may  happen  to  be,  but  would  find  any  other  modes  of 
communication,  such  as  those  with  which  the  crawling  facul- 
ties of  the  outer  world  have  to  be  content,  simply  intolerable 
in  their  tedium  and  inefficiency."  {The  Occult  World,  by 
A.  P.  Sinnett,  pp.  32,  33.) 

This  is  done  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  laws  of  spirit, 
and  with  as  much  ease  as  we  can  carry  on  a  conversation 
with  our  friends  in  the  same  room  with  us,  for  what  men  call 
the  supernatural  is  the  natural  in  the  spiritual  sphere. 
Thought  is  the  most  real  thing  in  the  universe,  and  when 
united  with  love  or  emotion  is  the  divinest  and  most  far- 
reaching  and  penetrating  force  in  the  whole  realm  of  being. 
On  this  subject  Madam  Blavatsk}-,  a  very  competent  witness, 
as  she  is  herself  an  adept  in  the  practice  of  psychological 
telegraphy,  says  in  her  great  work,  "  Isis  Unveiled," 
"  Experiments  with  the  telephone  prove  that  the  human 
voice  and  the  sounds  of  instrumental  music  may  be  conveyed 
along  a  telegraphic  wire  to  a  great  distance.     The  Hermetic 


THE   PRIMITIVE   mND-CURE.  201 

philosophers  taught  that  the  disappearance  from  sight  of  a 
flame  does  not  imply  its  actual  extinction  (nor  indeed  of  the 
object  burned) .  It  has  only  passed  from  the  visible  to  the 
invisible  world,  and  may  be  perceived  by  the  inner  sense  of 
vision,  which  is  adapted  to  the  things  of  that  other  and  more 
real  universe.  The  same  rule  applies  to  sound.  As  the 
physical  ear  discerns  the  vibrations  of  the  atmosphere  (or 
aether)  only  up  to  a  certain  point,  not  yet  definitely  fixed, 
but  varying  with  the  individual,  so  the  adept,  whose  interior 
hearing  has  been  developed,  can  take  the  sound  at  this  van- 
ishing point,  and  hear  its  vibrations  in  the  astral  light  indefi- 
nitely. He  needs  no  wires,  helices,  or  sounding-boards  ;  his 
will-power  is  all  sufficient.  Hearing  with  tlie  sph'it,  time  and 
distance  offer  no  impediments,  and  so  he  may  converse  with 
another  adept  at  the  antipodes  with  as  great  ease  as  though 
they  were  in  the  same  room." 

"  Fortunately  we  can  produce  numerous  witnesses  to  cor- 
roborate our  statement,  who,  without  being  adepts  at  all, 
have,  nevertheless,  heard  the  sound  of  aerial  music  and  of 
the  human  voice  when  neither  instrument  nor  speaker  were 
within  thousands  of  miles  of  the  place  where  we  sat.  In 
tlieir  case  they  actually  heard  interiorly.,  though  they  supposed 
their  physical  organs  of  hearing  alone  were  employed.  The 
adept  had,  b}-  a  single  effort  of  will-power,  given  them  for 
the  brief  moment  the  same  perception  of  the  spirit  of  sound 
as  he  himself  constantly  enjoys."  {Isis  Unveiled.,  vol.  ii., 
pp.  605,  606.) 

These  phenomena  are  absolutely  established  facts,  and 
contain  a  principle  which  is  applicable  to  communication 
with  the  universal  world  of  spirit,  the  realm  of  angels,  and 
heaven  of  the  blest.  In  solitude  and  inward  silence,  their 
thoughts  may  come  to  us  as  "the  still  small  voice  within." 
"What  we  call  language  is  only  thought  expressed  on  the 
plane  of  sense.  But  our  ti-ue  being  lies  behind  the  veil  of 
sense,  and  this  may  hear  and  speak  the  soundless  language 


202  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

of  thought  and  ideas.  Thought,  being  the  supersensuous 
side  of  language,  is  a  more  real  and  potent  thing  than  spoken 
words.  On  this  principle  is  based  the  practice  of  the  cure 
of  disease  by  the  ideal  or  transcendental  method. 

The  transmission  of  thought,  the  transference  of  ideas 
from  one  mind  to  another,  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  laws 
of  mind,  and  without  a  mkacle,  has  been  practised  b}'  many 
persons  in  various  countries.  In  this  case,  the  old  maxim 
of  the  Hindu  metaphysical  philosophy,  and  one  much  older 
than  Lord  Bacon,  holds  good  :  "  Power  belongs  to  him  who 
knows."  If  we  understand  the  laws  that  govern  it,  and  the 
conditions  under  which  it  can  take  place,  we  can  do  it.  It 
takes  place  as  naturally  as  the  descent  of  water  from  a 
higher  to  a  lower  level.  Thought  is  not  a  faculty  of  mind ; 
it  is  mind  itself.  It  is  the  very  being  of  mind.  It  is  spirit. 
And  our  spirit  may  enter  the  soul  region  of  another  person 
in  a  passive  state,  as  readily  as  the  light  of  the  sun  enters  a 
sky-light  in  the  roof  of  a  building  and  illuminates  the  room 
below. 

The  Abb6  Fretheim,  who  lived  in  the  seventeenth  century 
and  published  a  work  entitled  "  Steganographie,"  could  con- 
verse with  his  friends  any  time  he  pleased,  by  a  transmission 
of  his  thoughts.  He  says:  "I  can  make  my  thoughts 
known  to  the  initiated,  at  a  distance  of  many  hundred  miles, 
without  word,  writing,  or  cypher,  and  even"  without  a  mes- 
senger. If  any  correspondent  should  be  buried  in  the  deep- 
est dungeon,  I  could  still  convey  to  him  my  thoughts,  as 
frequently  as  I  chose,  and  this  quite  simply,  without  super- 
stition, without  the  aid  of  spirits."  A  certain  Cordauus  is 
chronicled  as  having  been  able  to  send  his  spirit  or  thoiight- 
presence  on  such  psychological  errands,  with  any  messages 
he  chose  to  transmit.  When  he  did  so,  he  affirms  that  he 
felt  "as  if  a  door  was  opened  and  I  myself  immediately- 
passed  through  it,  leaving  the  body  behind  me."  There  was 
more  reality  in  this  than  the  world  at  large  is  prepai*ed  to 


THE   PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUBE.  203 

admit.  It  is  not  an  illusion,  but  a  substantial  reality  ;  since, 
by  one  of  the  deepest  laws  of  my  inner  being,  the  sjnrit  is 
always  present  with  the  spirit  of  him  who  is  the  object  of 
thought.  So  wherever  my  thought  is,  there  the  spirit  itself 
is ;  and  the  spirit  is  the  sovereign  power  in  human  nature. 

The  case  of  a  high  German  official,  a  counsellor  Weser- 
man,  is  mentioned  in  a  German  paper  on  Psychology,  pub- 
lished in  1820,  who  claimed  to  be  able  to  cause  any  friend 
or  acquaintance,  at  any  distance,  to  dream  of  any  subject  he 
chose  or  see  any  person  he  liked.  His  claims  were  proved 
good,  and  were  testified  to  on  several  occasions,  by  sceptics 
and  learned  professional  persons.  {Isis  Unveiled,  vol.  i., 
pp.  476,  477.) 

From  my  own  observation  of  these,  to  many  incredible, 
phenomena,  now  for  more  than  twenty  years,  I  have  no  rea- 
son to  doubt  the  truth  of  the  above.  I  will  only  say,  that  all 
that  is  claimed  above  to  have  been  done,  I  have  many  times 
witnessed.  And  why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing  incredible, 
that  there  should  be  such  a  thing  as  a  system  of  psychologi- 
cal telegraphy,  and  even  the  transference  of  our  inner  con- 
scious self  to  any  distance  of  space,  which  for  it  has  no  real 
existence?  Every  one  knows  that  he  can  transport  himself 
wherever  he  pleases  by  that  power  and  mode  of  thought 
which  we  call  imagination.  But  imagination  is  inseparable 
from  the  spirit  of  man ;  so  that  wherever  I  imagine  myself 
to  be,  there  my  real  personality  is.  And  if  I  am  there,  why 
may  I  not  speak  in  thought,  which  is  the  language  of  spirit, 
to  my  friend,  who,  as  to  his  inner  being,  is  another  spirit? 
The  thing  is  really  as  natural  as  our  ordinaiy  conversation 
with  each  other. 

In  sleep,  when  the  soul  is  more  or  less  emancipated  from 
the  body,  and  freed  from  its  limitations  and  restraints,  the 
mind  acts  with  more  intensity  and  power  on  other  minds. 
And  the  more  we  can  pass  into  an  interior  state,  where  the 
bodily  senses  become  quiescent,  which  is  the  Neo-Platonio 


204  THE   PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

ecstasy,  the  more  we  can  do  so.  This  is  well  illustrated  by 
a  fact  mentioned  by  Dr.  Abercrombie,  which,  as  an  instance 
of  psychological  telegraphy,  or  the  transfer  of  thought  and 
idea  from  one  mind  to  another,  is  explained  on  this  princi- 
ple :  A  young  man,  who  was  at  an  academy  an  hundred 
miles  from  home,  dreamed  that  he  went  to  his  father's  house 
in  the  night,  tried  the  front  door,  but  found  it  locked ;  got 
in  by  a  back  door,  and  finding  nobody  out  of  bed,  went 
directly  to  the  bed-room  of  his  parents.  He  then  said  to  his 
mother,  whom  he  seemed  to  himself  to  find  awake,  "  Mother, 
I  am  going  a  long  journc}',  and  have  come  to  bid  3-ou  good- 
bye." On  which  she  answered,  under  much  agitation,  "  O 
dear  son,  thou  art  dead  !  "  He  instantly  awoke,  and  thought 
no  more  of  his  dream,  until  a  few  days  after  he  received  a 
letter  from  his  father  inquiring  very  anxiously  after  his 
health,  in  consequence  of  a  frightful  dream  his  mother  had 
on  the  same  night  in  which  the  dream  just  mentioned  oc- 
curred to  him.  She  dreamed  she  heard  some  one  attempt  to 
open  the  front  door,  then  go  to  the  back  door,  and  at  last 
come  into  her  bed-room.  She  then  saw  it  was  her  son,  who 
came  to  the  side  of  her  bed,  and  said,  "  Mother,  I  am  going 
a  long  journey,  and  am  come  to  bid  you  good-bye" ;  on 
which  she  exclaimed,  "  0  uear  son,  thou  art  dead !  "  Noth- 
ing unusual  happened  to  either  of  the  parties.  {Inquiries 
concerning  the  Intellectual  I\jo)ers.,  p.  210.)    . 

Dr.  Abercrombie  can  give  no  explanation  of  this  interest- 
ing fact,  though  he  vouches  for  its  truthfulness.  But  it  is 
neither  a  miracle  nor  a  "coincidence,"  by  which  is  meant 
the  happening  of  two  things  together.  But  it  is  easily 
accounted  for  on  the  principle  of  the  transmission  of  thought 
and  idea,  under  certain  conditions,  from  one  mind  to  an- 
other. Once  admit  the  possibility  of  this,  and  all  is  plain 
and  natural. 

I  remember  to  have  read  in  the  Neio  York  Tribune  many 
years  ago,  an  account  of  two  men  who  were  intimate  friends, 


THE   PRIMirrVE   MIND-CURE.  205 

and  vrho,  on  separating  from  each  other  for  a  short  time  on 
business  which  took  them  many  miles  apart,  agreed  that  on 
a  certain  da}',  at  nine  o'clock  at  night,  each  would  retire  to 
his  room  and  think  of  the  other,  and  write  down  their 
thoughts.  When  they  met,  they  were  to  compare  what  they 
had  written.  One  of  them  at  the  appointed  time  went  to  his 
room,  but  forgot  the  engagement,  and  retired  to  bed  and  fell 
asleep.  The  other  thought  of  his  friend,  and  imagined  a 
beautiful  landscape  garden  with  flowers,  arbors,  fountains, 
statues,  etc.,  and  ivrote  down  his  tlwughts  and  ideas,  with  his 
mind  fixed  upon  his  friend.  On  meeting,  the  one  who  forgot 
the  appointmentjie  had  made,  apologized  for  his  forgetful- 
ness,  but  said  that  in  his  sleep  he  had  a  remarkable  dream, 
which,  on  waking  in  the  morning,  he  had  written  down.  On 
reading  it,  it  was  found  in  all  essential  particulars  to  be  a 
copy  of  the  thoughts  of  the  other.  This  was  not  a  mere 
"  coincidence,"  but  under  the  same  or  like  circumstances 
would  "happen"  again.  How  much  the  thoughts  of  our 
friends  influence  us  for  good  or  evil,  we  do  not  know,  but 
much  more  than  the  world  is  ready  to  admit.  Our  formula 
of  invocation  is  based  on  the  reality  of  this  influence,  and 
aims  to  show  how  most  effectually  to  use  it,  and  how  our 
loill,  imagination,  and  faith  may  best  employ  the  divine 
power  of  truth  in  the  cure  of  mental  and  bodily  disease. 

The  communication  of  thought  and  idea  from  one  mind  to 
another  takes  place  without  effort  on  our  part,  under  certain 
conditions  and  limitations  that  are  necessary  to  prevent  its 
being  abused  to  purposes  of  evil.  It  is  easy  for  him  to  do 
who  "  knows,"  but  if  it  were  too  easily  done,  it  would  intro- 
duce inextricable  confusion  and  disorder  into  the  realm  of 
mind.  To  do  it  requires  a  certain  degree  of  spiritual  de- 
velopment, which,  when  attained,  deprives  one  of  all  desire 
or  inclination  to  abuse  it,  or  to  use  it  only  for  the  most  benefi- 
cent ends,  as  the  relief  of  suffering,  the  removal  of  the  cause 
of  mental  inharmony,  and  the  cure  of  disease.     It  is  only 


206  THE    PRIMITIVE   MIND-CURE. 

giving  quality,  and  direction,  and  a  definite  aim  to  the  sphere 
of  our  own  tlioughts  and  feelings,  which  is  very  easily  done. 
Says  Cornelius  Agrippa :  "Out  of  every  body  proceed 
images,  indivisible  substances,  and  on  that  account  a  man  is 
in  a  condition  to  impart  his  thoughts  to  another  man  who  is 
hundreds  of  miles  away."  (Sprengel's  History  of  Medicine,, 
Part  II.,  p.  267.  Ennemoser's  History  of  Magic,  Vol.  II., 
p.  254.) 

This  is  what  Swedeuborg  calls  the  emanative  sphere  of  a 
person  or  thing.  Each  emanative  ray  or  immaterial  atom  is 
a  living  resemblance  or  idea  of  the  person,  possessing  his 
peculiar  quality,  and  by  means  of  this  sphere  we  may  make 
ourselves  visible  to  the  inner  senses  of  another  person  remote 
from  us  in  space.  This  idea  may  take  shape  in  the  universal 
substance,  the  cosmic  matter,  and  be,  as  it  were,  a  duplicate 
of  ourselves.  It  is  our  "  thought,"  our  inner  and  real  per- 
sonality externalized  and  extended  abroad.  According  to 
the  doctrine  of  Aristotle,  every  object  and  every  person  is 
continually  emitting  or  throwing  off  certain  resemblances  of 
themselves.  These  species,  or  phantasms,  as  they  were 
caUed,  like  the  Platonic  ideas,  are  directly  present  to  our 
organs  of  sense  in  the  soul,  however  remote  in  space  the 
objects  may  be  from  which  they  proceed.  This  was  the 
theory  of  vision  which  prevailed  in  Europe  for  more  than  a 
thousand  years  ;  and  it  has  the  merit  of  being  as  rational  as 
the  one  adopted  by  the  materialistic  science  of  to-day. 

Spirit  cannot  effect  the  grosser  form  of  matter  directly, 
but  only  through  an  intermediate  substance  or  principle.  In 
order  to  reach  the  soul  of  the  patient,  and  through  this  affect 
the  body,  our  spiritual  thought  and  ideas  must  be  impressed 
upon  the  "  astral  hght,"  the  universal  life-principle,  which 
is  the  wire  through  which  our  thought  must  pass.  This  is 
always  near  us,  for  every  soul  is  in  it  and  is  a  part  of  it. 
Our  thought  may  be  impressed  upon  it  by  a  whispered  utter- 
ance, and  tacit  speech,  also  by  the  hand  (and  this  is  the 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MEND-CURE.  207 

philosophy  of  gesture) ,  and  also  by  au  expiratory  respiration. 
The  hand  can  be  made  the  sileut  tongue  that  speaks  the 
voiceless  language  of  ideas.  It  may  be  made  to  speak  a 
language  understood  by  the  life-principle,  the  world-soul, 
just  as  certainl}'  as  you  can  beckon  a  man  to  come  to  you,  or 
go  away  from  you,  and  without  saying  a  word  can  cause  hira 
to  look  at  an  object  by  pointing  your  finger  towards  it.  In 
treating  a  patient  by  the  transcendental  method,  we  must 
learn  to  tallc  to  him  in  thoiight,  in  words,  and  with  the  hand. 

When  a  person  is  in  the  magnetic  state,  what  you  suggest 
to  him  becomes  the  law  of  his  being.  Say  to  him  that  an 
apple  is  an  orange,  or  that  water  is  wine,  and  he  has  so 
vivid  an  idea  and  belief  of  those  things  that  they  are  trans- 
formed into  an  orange,  or  into  wine,  as  the  case  may  be, 
possessing  all  the  sensible  properties  of  those  objects.  But 
only  a  few  persons  are  good  subjects  of  magnetism.  For- 
tunately, it  has  been  found  that  when  a  person  is  in  a  passive 
state,  and  is  desirous  of  being  healed,  and  is  predisposed  to 
believe  and  to  follow  your  directions,  to  silently  suggest  the 
truth  to  him  creates  in  him  a  tendency  to  think  the  same. 
This  is  a  very  ancient  principle  of  the  science  of  magnetism. 
There  is  a  silent  action  of  mind  on  mind,  without  the  use  of 
spoken  words.  It  is  generally  admitted  by  medical  men, 
that  our  faith  will  affect  ourselves  ;  but  they  wholly  ignore 
the  fact  that  our  faith  and  imagination  may  affect  another,  if 
not  to  the  same  extent  as  it  does  ourselves,  yet  as  certainly 
in  a  degree.  We  can  be  helpers  of  another  man's  faith. 
That  our  faith  or  mode  of  thinking  may  affect  the  mind  of 
another,  through  the  medium  of  a  universal  mind  or  life 
which  connects  all  minds  by  a  law  of  sympathy,  is  a  truth 
recognized  in  the  promise  of  Jesus,  "These  signs  shall  fol- 
low them  that  believe"  one  of  which  is,  "They  shall  lay 
hands  on  the  sick,  and  they  shall  recover,"     (Mark  xvi :  18.) 

The  principle  of  silent  suggestion  has  its  application  albo 
to  self-healing.     It  is  possible  for  the  higher  soul  or  spirit  to 


208  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CUKE. 

speak  to  the  lower  soul  somewhat  as  we  address  another  per- 
son. The  faith  of  which  Paul  so  often  speaks,  and  by  which 
we  attain  to  righteousness,  or  a  divine  rectitude  of  thought, 
is  the  recognition  and  affirmation  of  the  truth  with  regard  to 
our  real  self,  that  in  the  Christ  or  spirit  we  are  already 
saved.  In  the  Christ  are  hid  all  the  ti-easures  of  wisdom 
and  knowledge,  and  in  him  we  are  complete  or  made  full. 
(Col.  ii:  9,  10.)  The  intuition  of  this  great  truth,  and  the 
confident  affirmation  of  it,  is  the  Pauhne  justification,  and 
Kabalistic  righteousness,  which  means  soundness  of  mind. 
It  is  a  faith  that  makes  us  whole.  To  affirm  this  of  ourselves 
in  thought  is  a  supreme  act  of  faith.  And  to  give  it  vocal  or 
verbal  utterance  intensifies  and  confirms  it.  "  For  with  the 
heart  (or  in  the  centi-e  of  our  being),  man  believeth  unto 
righteousness  ;  and  with  the  mouth,  confession  is  made  unto 
salvation."     (Rom.  x  :  10.) 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  209 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

RESURRECTION  FROM  THE  BODY,  OR  THE  LIBERTY  OF  THE  SONS 
OF  GOD. 

According  to  Plato,  there  was  once  a  winged  race  of  men 
on  the  earth.  Of  course  this  is  symbolical  of  a  race  who 
could  emancipate  themselves  from  the  limitations  and  thral- 
dom of  the  body,  and  who  could  rise  in  their  thoughts  above 
the  plane  of  sense.  According  to  Swedenborg's  science  of 
correspondence,  wings  denote  spiritual  truths,  and  to  rise  on 
eagles'  wings  signifies  to  be  elevated  by  spiritual  truths  to 
celestial  light.     {Arcana  Celestia,  8764.) 

The  great  majority  of  mankind  have  lost  their  wings,  and 
are  grovelling  in  the  dust. 

"  Here  man,  fool  man,  inters  celestial  hopes. 
Without  one  sigh,  and  prisoner  of  earth. 
And  pent  beneath  the  moon,  here  pinions  all 
His  wishes,  winged  of  God  to  fly  at  infinite, 
And  reach  it  there  where  seraphs  gather 
Immortality  on  life's  fair  tree,  fast  by 
The  throne  of  God." 

The  higher  soul  of  man,  imprisoned  in  the  body  and  buried 
in  the  sepulchre  of  irrational  sense,  loses  the  use  of  its 
wings,  and  its  angelic  powers  are  latent  and  dormant. 
Instead  of  soaring  into  the  heavens,  it  can  at  best  only  wade 
in  the  mud. 

The  true  wings  of  the  soul  are  faith  and  love,  or  the  per- 
ception of  real  truth,  and  a  pure  emotional  state  to  balance 
it. 

How  to  emancipate  the  soul  from  the  body  and  the  mind 
from  the  illusions  of  sense,  so  that  we  may  attain  to  a  truly 


210  THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE. 

spiritual  mode  of  thought  and  feeling,  and  to  the  almost 
deific  powers  belonging  to  such  a  condition,  is  the  great 
problem  of  religion  and  philosophy.  Momentous  conse- 
quences are  involved  in  its  solution.  The  importance  and 
necessity  of  the  resurrection  of  the  soul  from  the  body  in 
order  to  the  attainment  of  a  spiritual  life  on  earth  is  well 
stated  by  Sokrates  in  the  "  Phsedo  "  of  Plato.  He  says  :  "  In 
fact  it  is  quite  plain  that  if  we  are  ever  to  know  anything 
clearly,  we  must  be  released  from  the  body,  that  the  soul  by 
itself  may  see  things  by  themselves  as  they  really  are.  And 
then  only,  methinks,  shall  we  have  that  which  we  desire,  and 
of  which  we  caU  ourselves  lovers,  namel}',  wisdom."  Here, 
then,  is  the  only  pathway  which  leads  up  to  the  temple  of  a 
true  spiritual  knowledge.  For  as  Sokrates,  or  rather  Plato 
through  him,  says,  "We  shall  be  so  much  nearer  to  true 
knowledge  the  more  we  refrain  from  such  contact  and  fellow- 
ship with  the  body  as  is  not  absolutely  necessary."  The  way 
to  effect  this  emancipation  of  the  soul,  imprisoned  in  the  body, 
from  material  limitations,  at  which  all  the  ancient  philoso- 
phies aimed,  is  as  well  stated  by  Sokrates  in  the  "  Pbaedo"  as 
it  can  be  expressed.  He  says  :  "  They  who  love  knowledge 
know  that  their  soul  when  first  received  by  philosophy  is 
absolutely  bound  up  in  the  body  and  glued  fast  to  it,  and 
compelled  to  survey  the  things  that  really  exist  through  it  as 
through  the  bars  of  a  dungeon,  and  not  in  her  own  nature  ; 
and  that  she  is  wallowing  in  all  ignorance  as  in  a  mire,  and 
is  not  aware  that  the  strength  of  her  prison  comes  from  her 
own  desires,  so  that  the  prisoner  actually  conspires  to  his 
own  captivity." 

"Well,  as  I  said,  lovers  of  knowledge  know  that  philosophy, 
receiving  the  soul  in  this  condition,  gently  encourages  her, 
and  tries  to  effect  her  release  by  showing  that  perception  by 
means  of  the  eyes  and  ears  and  other  senses  is  altogether 
deceitful,  persuading  her,  moreover,  to  withdraw  the  senses 
so  far  as  she  can  dispense  with  them,  and  exhorting  her  to 


THE    PRIMITIVE    MIND-CURE.  211 

retii-e  into  herself  and  be  self-collected,  and  to  believe  none 
other  than  herself,  and  that  part  of  real  independent  exist- 
ence which  she  contemplates  directly  in  herself ;  but  to  hold 
as  untrue  whatever  things,  by  means  of  different  faculties, 
she  may  perceive  to  be  varying  in  their  different  manifesta- 
tions ;  knowing  that  such  as  these  belong  to  the  visible  and 
to  the  realm  of  sense,  but  that  what  she  sees  in  herself  alone 
belongs  to  the  invisible  and  to  the  realm  of  thought.  She 
withdraws  herself  as  much  as  possible  from  pleasures,  and 
desires,  and  pains,  and  fears,  deeming  that  when  any  one  is 
powerfully  affected  by  pleasure,  or  fear,  or  grief,  or  desire, 
he  brings  upon  himself  no  slight  evil,  as  might  be  expected, 
like  sickness,  or  waste  of  property,  occasioned  by  indulging 
the  passions,  but  he  suffers  the  last  and  worst  of  all  evils, 
and  yet  takes  no  account  of  it." 

"And  what  is  that  evil?  It  is  this.  The  soul  of  every 
man  at  the  time  of  undergoing  intense  joy  or  intense  sorrow 
is  led  to  believe  that  whatever  causes  these  is  most  real  and 
true,  although  in  reality  it  is  not  so.  And  this  applies  espe- 
cially to  things  visible.  And  it  is  in  this  state  of  feeling  that 
the  soul  is  most  effectually  imprisoned  in  the  body.  Because 
every  pleasure  and  every  pain  is,  as  it  were,  a  nail  which 
nails  and  clamps  the  soul  to  the  body,  and  fasliions  her  in 
the  image  of  the  bod}',  causing  her  to  believe  that  to  be  true 
which  the  body  affirms  to  be  true,  and  from  agreeing  with 
the  body  and  rejoicing  in  what  appertains  thereto,  she  must 
perforce,  I  think,  end  by  acquiring  a  like  nature  and  habits." 
{Phcedo,  sec.  83.) 

These  are  golden  words,  uttered  by  one  who  represents  the 
ancient  wisdom,  the  old  wine  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  "We  need 
to  learn  to  close  the  senses  to  the  external  world  of  illusion, 
and  turn  the  mind  inward  towards  the  light  of  the  unseen  and 
real  world.  We  must  forever  fix  it  in  our  minds  that  things 
seen  by  the  senses  are  temporal,  unreal,  and  evanescent 
shadows,  but  things  not  seen  by  the  mortal  eye,  but  lying 


212  THE   PRIMITITE   MIND-CURE. 

wholly  beyond  its  ken,  are  the  only  eternal  and  enduring 
realities.  We  must  as  much  as  possible  divest  the  soul,  the 
inner  man,  of  all  its  material  and  sensuous  integuments,  "  the 
coats  of  skin  "  with  which  it  has  been  clothed,  and  free  it 
from  the  finite  limitations  of  its  personal  existence,  and 
leave  it  in  its  primitive  innocent  nakedness  to  absorb  the 
light  and  life  of  "  true  being,"  and  to  become  one  with  that 
boundless  realm  of  uncreated  spiritual  eflfulgence.  We  must 
close  the  lower  windows,  and,  like  the  ancient  temples,  let 
the  light  in  at  the  top.     Then 

"  The  world  that  time  and  sense  have  known 
Falls  off,  and  leaves  us  God  alone." 

It  is  a  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Hermetic  philosophy  that 
the  soul  of  man  is  not  of  necessity  included  in  the  body,  nor 
bounded  and  circumscribed  by  it.  The  body  exists  in  the 
soul,  and  is  included  in  its  existence,  but  the  body  does  not 
and  cannot  limit  and  contain  the  soul.  This  is  the  divine 
method  of  viewing  it,  and  is  in  direct  contradiction  to  the 
common  popular  conception  of  it.  According  to  Plato  in  the 
' '  Timaeus,"  God  first  creates  the  world-soul,  the  anima  mundi, 
and  then  the  world  is  created  or  generated  in  it.  The  world- 
soul  is  not  limited  by  the  world,  but  fills  all  space,  and  is 
space  itself,  in  which  everything  exists.  So  the  soul  of  man, 
according  to  the  Platonic  philosophy,  was  made  out  of  the 
universal  soul,  of  which  it  is  a  personal  and  finite  limitation, 
and  in  the  interior  of  the  soul  the  body  was  formed.  The 
body,  to  use  an  imperfect  illustration  and  analogy,  is  like  an 
island  in  a  lake  or  ocean.  While  it  is  true  that  the  island  is 
pervaded  by  the  water,  it  does  not  contain,  measure,  or 
bound  it.  He  who  views  the  body  as  containing  the  soul  is 
like  the  man  who  should  suppose  that  the  water  he  finds  by 
digging  in  the  sand  of  an  island  is  all  there  is  in  the  lake  or 
ocean  which  surrounds  it.  So  the  soul  of  man  is  much  more 
than  what  is  included  in  the  body.     It  is  by  divine  right  a 


THE   PKIMIXrVE   MIND-CUKE.  213 

freeman  of  infinitude,  as  it  is  not,  only  in  our  unbelief  or 
misbelief,  separated  and  disjoined  from  the  divine  soul  of 
the  universe.  This  is  a  principle  of  the  ancient  wisdom,  and 
is  one  of  far-reaching  importance.  When  the  soul  is  freed 
from  the  bondage  of  the  enfeebling  conception  that  it  is  in 
the  body,  its  fetters  are  broken,  and  the  stone  is  removed 
from  the  door  of  its  sepulchre.  It  is  no  longer  subject  to 
the  body,  which  is  an  inverted  order  of  its  life,  but  it 
becomes  its  rightful  sovereign.  If  the  body  is  not  external 
to  the  soul,  but  is  internal,  then  the  soul,  being  more  than 
the  body,  when  properly  instructed  and  reinforced  by  the 
higher  divine  spirit,  can  form  the  body  after  the  pattern  of 
any  idea  it  pleases.  Men  on  the  stage  form  an  idea  of  a 
certain  state  which  they  would  represent,  and  even  children 
in  their  sports  do  this,  and  then  the  idea  moulds  the  body 
into  its  outward  expression.  Can  we  not  make  these  bodily 
representations  of  an  inward  idea  permanent?  We  can 
become  the  part  we  play.  In  the  drama  of  life  we  can  assume 
the  character  of  perfect  health,  and  the  body  will  come  into 
harmony  with  that  idea.  For  the  body  is  passive  and  inert 
clay,  and  the  soul  is  the  potter.  That  the  soul  is  not  of 
necessity  imprisoned  in  the  body  like  a  bird  in  a  cage,  but 
as  a  part  of  the  divine  Soul  of  the  world,  from  which  it  is 
never  sundered,  may  attain  to  a  boundless  freedom,  with  its 
senses  almost  unlimited  in  their  range,  is  a  truth  which  has 
always  been  known  to  the  initiates  of  the  inner  sanctuary. 
This  is  the  liberty  of  the  "  sons  of  God,"  of  which  Paul 
speaks,  and  which  is  enjoyed  by  the  adepts  of  the  Himalaya 
Mountains  to-day.  A  soul  imprisoned  in  the  body  is  subject 
to  the  laws  of  matter ;  freed  from  the  body,  it  is  subject  only 
to  the  laws  of  thought. 

But  how  reach  this  state  ?  Not  as  long  as  the  soul  is 
bound  to  matter,  and  views  matter  and  the  body  as  reall>j 
existing  things.  Not  surely  as  long  as  tlie  soul  thinks  and 
feels  that  it  is  limited  to  the  body  and  bounded  by  it.     For 


214  THE   PUIMITIVE   IflND-CUKE. 

then  its  powers  are  dormant,  and  it  can  act  only  in  and 
through  the  body.  On  this  subject  let  the  soul  in  us  listen 
to  the  voice  of  the  ancient  wisdom.  Says  Plothius  (Ennead 
3,  lib.  6),  "  Since  matter  is  neither  soul,  nor  intellect,  nor 
life,  nor  form,  nor  reason,  nor  bound,  but  a  certain  indefi- 
niteness  ;  nor  yet  capacity,  for  what  can  it  produce  ?  Since 
it  is  foreign  from  all  these,  it  cannot  merit  the  appellation  of 
being,  but  is  deservedly  called  non-entity."  He  proceeds  to 
alKrm  that  it  is  but  the  shadow  and  imagination  of  bulk,  like 
an  image  in  a  miiTor  or  in  water.  It  is  constituted  in  the 
shade  and  defect  of  true  being,  and  hence  must  be  the  most 
unreal  thing  in  the  universe,  a  mere  flj'ing  and  ever-changing 
mockery.  It  has,  in  fact,  no  solidit}^  which  is  one  of  the 
most  firmly  seated  of  our  illusions  in  regard  to  it,  and  one  of 
the  last  to  quit  its  hold  upon  us.  For  when  a  man  puts  his 
hand  upon  a  block  of  marble,  it  is  difficult  to  feel  that  its 
solidity  is  only  a  sensation  of  resistance  in  us.  So  of  all  its 
so-called  properties.  Supposing  those  sensations  to  be  all 
removed  from  the  soul,  with  their  removal,  all  matter,  and 
hence  also  the  human  body,  is  gone.  And  whenever  those 
modifications  of  mind  or  sensations  exist  in  us,  then  matter 
exists,  for  it  is  nothing  else. 

Plotinus  also  says  "  that  those  who  view  body  as  a  real 
being,  and  make  sense  the  standard  and  measure  of  truth, 
are  affected  like  persons  in  a  dream,  who  imagine  that  the 
perceptions  of  sleep  are  true.  For  sense  is  alone  the  employ- 
ment of  the  dormant  soul ;  since  as  much  of  the  soul  as  is 
merged  in  the  bodj/,  so  much  of  it  sleeps.  But  true  elevation 
and  true  wakefulness  are  a  resurrection  from,  and  not  with, 
tiie  dull  mass  of  the  bod3\  For  indeed  a  resurrection  with 
the  body  is  only  a  transmigration  from  sleep  to  sleep,  and 
from  dream  to  dream,  like  a  man  passing  in  the  dark  from 
bed  to  bed."  {Introduction  to  the  Timceus,  by  Thomas 
Taylor,  p.  431.)  In  the  light  of  this  Neo-Platouic  philoso- 
phy, with  what  fulness  of  meaning  come  the  words  of  Paul 


THE   PRIMmVE   MIND-CURE.  215 

to  us:  "Awake  to  righteousness  and  sin  not"  (1  Cor.  xv: 
34),  where  righteousness  is  used  for  the  Kabalistic  right 
thinkivg  or  faith,  and  sin  for  the  iUusions  of  sense.  He  also 
says,  "Awake  thou  that  sleepest  (or  thou  that  art  sunk  in 
the  life  of  sense),  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and  the  Christ 
shall  give  thee  light."  (Eph.  v:14.)  There  is  no  other 
way  to  the  attainment  of  true  spiritual  life,  light,  and  power. 


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